The risk of COVID-19 death is much greater and age dependent with type I IFN autoantibodies

Jérémy Manry, Paul Bastard, Adrian Gervais, Tom Le Voyer, Jérémie Rosain, Quentin Philippot, Eleftherios Michailidis, Hans Heinrich Hoffmann, Shohei Eto, Marina Garcia-Prat, Lucy Bizien, Alba Parra-Martínez, Rui Yang, Liis Haljasmägi, Mélanie Migaud, Karita Särekannu, Julia Maslovskaja, Nicolas de Prost, Yacine Tandjaoui-Lambiotte, Charles Edouard LuytBlanca Amador-Borrero, Alexandre Gaudet, Julien Poissy, Pascal Morel, Pascale Richard, Fabrice Cognasse, Jesús Troya, Sophie Trouillet-Assant, Alexandre Belot, Kahina Saker, Pierre Garçpn, Jacques G. Rivière, Jean Christophe Lagier, Stéphanie Gentile, Lindsey B. Rosen, Elana Shaw, Tomohiro Morio, Junko Tanaka, David Dalmau, Pierre Louis Tharaux, Damien Sene, Alain Stepanian, Bruno Mégarbane, Vasiliki Triantafyllia, Arnaud Fekkar, James R. Heath, José Luis Franco, Juan Manuel Anaya, Jordi Solé-Violán, Carolina Ramirez-Santana

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

100 Scopus citations

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection fatality rate (IFR) doubles with every 5 y of age from childhood onward. Circulating autoantibodies neutralizing IFN-α, IFN-ω, and/or IFN-β are found in ∼20% of deceased patients across age groups, and in ∼1% of individuals aged <70 y and in >4% of those >70 y old in the general population. With a sample of 1,261 unvaccinated deceased patients and 34,159 individuals of the general population sampled before the pandemic, we estimated both IFR and relative risk of death (RRD) across age groups for individuals carrying autoantibodies neutralizing type I IFNs, relative to noncarriers. The RRD associated with any combination of autoantibodies was higher in subjects under 70 y old. For autoantibodies neutralizing IFN-α2 or IFN-ω, the RRDs were 17.0 (95% CI: 11.7 to 24.7) and 5.8 (4.5 to 7.4) for individuals <70 y and ≥70 y old, respectively, whereas, for autoantibodies neutralizing both molecules, the RRDs were 188.3 (44.8 to 774.4) and 7.2 (5.0 to 10.3), respectively. In contrast, IFRs increased with age, ranging from 0.17% (0.12 to 0.31) for individuals <40 y old to 26.7% (20.3 to 35.2) for those ≥80 y old for autoantibodies neutralizing IFN-α2 or IFN-ω, and from 0.84% (0.31 to 8.28) to 40.5% (27.82 to 61.20) for autoantibodies neutralizing both. Autoantibodies against type I IFNs increase IFRs, and are associated with high RRDs, especially when neutralizing both IFN-α2 and IFN-ω. Remarkably, IFRs increase with age, whereas RRDs decrease with age. Autoimmunity to type I IFNs is a strong and common predictor of COVID-19 death.

Translated title of the contributionEl riesgo de muerte por COVID-19 es mucho mayor y depende de la edad con autoanticuerpos IFN de tipo I
Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere2200413119
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume119
Issue number21
DOIs
StatePublished - May 16 2022

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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