Early nasal type I IFN immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is compromised in patients with autoantibodies against type I IFNs.

IFN-I and IFN-III immunity in the nasal mucosa is poorly characterized during SARS-CoV-2 infection. We analyze the nasal IFN-I/III signature, namely the expression of ISGF-3-dependent IFN-stimulated genes, in mildly symptomatic COVID-19 patients and show its correlation with serum IFN-α2 levels, which peak at symptom onset and return to baseline from day 10 onward. Moreover, the nasal IFN-I/III signature correlates with the nasopharyngeal viral load and is associated with the presence of infectious viruses. By contrast, we observe low nasal IFN-I/III scores despite high nasal viral loads in a subset of critically ill COVID-19 patients, which correlates with the presence of autoantibodies (auto-Abs) against IFN-I in both blood and nasopharyngeal mucosa. In addition, functional assays in a reconstituted human airway epithelium model of SARS-CoV-2 infection confirm the role of such auto-Abs in abrogating the antiviral effects of IFN-I, but not those of IFN-III. Thus, IFN-I auto-Abs may compromise not only systemic but also local antiviral IFN-I immunity at the early stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Competing Interests: Disclosures: M. Mommert, W. Mouton, K. Brengel-Pesce, A. Bal, and V. Cheynet reported personal fees from bioMérieux during the conduct of the study and personal fees from bioMérieux outside the submitted work. M. Mommert, K. Brengel-Pesce, and S. Trouillet-Assant have a patent to FR2107421 pending. A. Pizzorno, B. Padey, and M. Rosa-Calatrava reported a patent to FR 20/02351 (Therapeutic treatments against SARS-CoV-2) pending. S. Trouillet-Assant and J.-B. Fassier reported non-financial support from bioMérieux during the conduct of the study and non-financial support from bioMérieux outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.
(© 2021 Lopez et al.)