ArticleVirology journal2023
The detectable anti-interferon-γ autoantibodies in COVID-19 patients may be associated with disease severity.
Article in Virology journal, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Anti-interferon Auto-antibodies in Infectious Diseases.Journal of clinical immunology · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence of thyroid autoantibodies in a large series of sarcoidosis patients: Implications for autoimmune thyroid disease screening.Sarcoidosis, vasculitis, and diffuse lung diseases : official journal of WASOG · 2026Article
- Anti-interferon-γ autoantibody-associated adult-onset immunodeficiency with occult immunological abnormalities and sequential intracellular infections: a case report.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- The Yin and Yang of Antibodies in Viral Infectious Diseases.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Identification of severity related mutation hotspots in SARS-CoV-2 using a density-based clustering approach.BioData mining · 2025Article
- Clinical Characteristics Analysis of 30 Cases of Interferon-γ Autoantibody-Positive Patients with Concurrent Mycobacterial Infection: A 6-Year Retrospective Study.Infection and drug resistance · 2025Article
- Exploring the Contrasts and Similarities of Dengue and SARS-CoV-2 Infections During the COVID-19 Era.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Review
- Role of autoantibodies targeting interferon type 1 in COVID-19 severity: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of translational autoimmunity · 2023Article
- Article
- Mitigating neutrophil trafficking and cardiotoxicity with DS-IkL in a microphysiological system of a cytokine storm.Lab on a chip · 2023Article
- Autoantibodies to Interferons in Infectious Diseases.Viruses · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNeutralizing anti-interferon (IFN)-γ autoantibodies are linked to adult-onset immunodeficiency and opportunistic infections.
methodsTo explore whether anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies are associated with disease severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we examined the titers and functional neutralization of anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies in COVID-19 patients. In 127 COVID-19 patients and 22 healthy controls, serum titers of anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies were quantified using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the presence of autoantibodies was verified with immunoblotting assay. The neutralizing capacity against IFN-γ was evaluated with flow cytometry analysis and immunoblotting, and serum cytokines levels were determined using the MULTIPLEX platform.
resultsA higher proportion of severe/critical COVID-19 patients had positivity for anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies (18.0%) compared with non-severe patients (3.4%, p < 0.01) or healthy control (HC) (0.0%, p < 0.05). Severe/critical COVID-19 patients also had higher median titers of anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies (5.01) compared with non-severe patients (1.33) or HC (0.44). The immunoblotting assay could verify the detectable anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies and revealed more effective inhibition of signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT1) phosphorylation on THP-1 cells treated with serum samples from anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies-positive patients compared with those from HC (2.21 ± 0.33 versus 4.47 ± 1.64, p < 0.05). In flow-cytometry analysis, sera from autoantibodies-positive patients could also significantly more effectively suppress the STAT1 phosphorylation (median,67.28%, interquartile range [IQR] 55.2-78.0%) compared with serum from HC (median,106.7%, IQR 100.0-117.8%, p < 0.05) or autoantibodies-negative patients (median,105.9%, IQR 85.5-116.3%, p < 0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that the positivity and titers of anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies were significant predictors of severe/critical COVID-19. Compared with non-severe COVID-19 patients, we reveal that a significantly higher proportion of severe/critical COVID-19 patients are positive for anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies with neutralizing capacity.
conclusionOur results would add COVID-19 to the list of diseases with the presence of neutralizing anti-IFN-γ autoAbs. Anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies positivity is a potential predictor of severe/critical COVID-19.
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