Here is our Introduction to the issue of #HumanGenetics focused on Infectious Diseases link.springer.com/article/10.100… A big thank you to the 29 colleagues who wrote superb reviews that cover the entire field. They form a solid base camp for the genetic ascent of COVID-19 😀
1/ We are excited to share our report in #JEM that about 10% of severe tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) cases, triggered by the TBE virus (TBEV), are due to pre-existing auto-Abs neutralizing type I IFNs (). doi.org/10.1084/jem.20…
2/ TBEV, an orthoflavivirus transmitted by infected ticks, is endemic in Europe and Asia. Infection is typically silent or benign but can underlie encephalitis in rare cases. The incidence of TBE is rising globally, with about 0.9 cases per 100,000 individuals reported in 2020.
3/ We previously showed that auto-Abs to type I IFNs underlie about 15% of cases of critical COVID-19, 5% of cases of critical influenza, and 3 out of 8 rare adverse reactions to the Yellow Fever virus (YFV) live-attenuated vaccine ().doi.org/10.1084/jem.20…
1/ 📢 📰 In @JExpMed, we report that about 10% of children with life-threatening #COVID19 harbor auto-antibodies to type I IFNs. ()rupress.org/jem/article/22…
2/ Since first being discovered in a patient with severe VZV infection by Ion Gresser in 1984, these auto-Abs have been thought to be silent 🔇()jstor.org/stable/30134062
3/ It wasn’t until 2020, that we uncovered that neutralizing auto-Abs to type I IFNs actually account for at least 10% of critical cases of #COVID19. The prevalence of these auto-Abs increases in the elderly 👵. ()science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
1/ We are excited to report in @Nature the discovery that human inborn errors of the alternative NF-κB pathway-dependent immunity underlie the development of auto-Abs neutralizing type I IFNs ().rdcu.be/dqBBU
2/ Auto-Abs neutralizing type I IFNs are present in the general population, with a prevalence that sharply increases over 70 years old, reaching 4-8% ().science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
3/ Auto-Abs to type I IFNs underlie various viral diseases, including about 15% of cases of critical COVID-19, 5% of cases of critical influenza, and 40% of cases of West Nile virus encephalitis ().rupress.org/jem/article/22…
1/ We are happy to share our report of inherited RIPK3 deficiency in a child with HSV-1 encephalitis (HSE) in @SciImmunology (doi.org/10.1126/sciimm…). HUGE thanks to all collaborators (list below)!
2/ HSV-1 is a ubiquitous virus that infects over 80% of the global population. HSE is perhaps the most common sporadic life-threatening encephalitis in the world.
3/ Since 2006, we and others have discovered 14 inborn errors of immunity underlying HSE, most of which disrupt type I IFN immunity in the brain (doi.org/10.1126/scienc…; doi.org/10.1126/sciimm…).
2/ The early 2000s discovery of IL-23 and IL-23R was associated with the characterization of TH17 cells as distinct T-cell lineage, different from TH1 / TH2 cells (nature.com/articles/natur…).
3/ In this paradigm, IL-12 is the IFN--inducing signature cytokine, whereas IL-23 is the IL-17-inducing signature cytokine (nature.com/articles/nm.38…).
1/ We are excited to share some news about human IRF1, which surprisingly turns out to be the key transcription factor downstream from IFN-gamma and STAT1 in macrophages (sciencedirect.com/science/articl…).
3/ IRF1 was characterized as a transcription factor essential for the development of NK and CD8 TR cells, as well as the action of both type I and type II IFNs. It was also the first member of the large family of IRFs (tinyurl.com/y8ntvvsf).