Tonutti A, Motta F, Ceribelli A, Isailovic N, Selmi C, De Santis M. Anti-MDA5 Antibody Linking COVID-19, Type I Interferon, and Autoimmunity: A Case Report and Systematic Literature Review.
Front Immunol 2022;
13:937667. [PMID:
35833112 PMCID:
PMC9271786 DOI:
10.3389/fimmu.2022.937667]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2022] [Accepted: 05/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction
The SARS-CoV-2 infection has been advocated as an environmental trigger for autoimmune diseases, and a paradigmatic example comes from similarities between COVID-19 and the myositis-spectrum disease associated with antibodies against the melanoma differentiation antigen 5 (MDA5) in terms of clinical features, lung involvement, and immune mechanisms, particularly type I interferons (IFN).
Case Report
We report a case of anti-MDA5 syndrome with skin manifestations, constitutional symptoms, and cardiomyopathy following a proven SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Systematic Literature Review
We systematically searched for publications on inflammatory myositis associated with COVID-19. We describe the main clinical, immunological, and demographic features, focusing our attention on the anti-MDA5 syndrome.
Discussion
MDA5 is a pattern recognition receptor essential in the immune response against viruses and this may contribute to explain the production of anti-MDA5 antibodies in some SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. The activation of MDA5 induces the synthesis of type I IFN with an antiviral role, inversely correlated with COVID-19 severity. Conversely, elevated type I IFN levels correlate with disease activity in anti-MDA5 syndrome. While recognizing this ia broad area of uncertainty, we speculate that the strong type I IFN response observed in patients with anti-MDA5 syndrome, might harbor protective effects against viral infections, including COVID-19.
Collapse