ABSTRACT
Yellow fever virus (YFV) live attenuated vaccine can, in rare cases, cause life-threatening disease, typically in patients with no previous history of severe viral illness. Autosomal recessive (AR) complete IFNAR1 deficiency was reported in one 12-yr-old patient. Here, we studied seven other previously healthy patients aged 13 to 80 yr with unexplained life-threatening YFV vaccine-associated disease. One 13-yr-old patient had AR complete IFNAR2 deficiency. Three other patients vaccinated at the ages of 47, 57, and 64 yr had high titers of circulating auto-Abs against at least 14 of the 17 individual type I IFNs. These antibodies were recently shown to underlie at least 10% of cases of life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia. The auto-Abs were neutralizing in vitro, blocking the protective effect of IFN-α2 against YFV vaccine strains. AR IFNAR1 or IFNAR2 deficiency and neutralizing auto-Abs against type I IFNs thus accounted for more than half the cases of life-threatening YFV vaccine-associated disease studied here. Previously healthy subjects could be tested for both predispositions before anti-YFV vaccination.
Subject(s)
Antibodies, Neutralizing/immunology , Autoantibodies/immunology , Autoimmune Diseases , COVID-19 , Genetic Diseases, Inborn , Interferon-alpha , Receptor, Interferon alpha-beta , SARS-CoV-2 , Yellow Fever Vaccine , Yellow fever virus , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Autoimmune Diseases/genetics , Autoimmune Diseases/immunology , COVID-19/genetics , COVID-19/immunology , Female , Genetic Diseases, Inborn/genetics , Genetic Diseases, Inborn/immunology , HEK293 Cells , Humans , Interferon-alpha/genetics , Interferon-alpha/immunology , Male , Middle Aged , Receptor, Interferon alpha-beta/deficiency , Receptor, Interferon alpha-beta/immunology , SARS-CoV-2/genetics , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , Vaccines, Attenuated/genetics , Vaccines, Attenuated/immunology , Yellow Fever Vaccine/adverse effects , Yellow Fever Vaccine/genetics , Yellow Fever Vaccine/immunology , Yellow fever virus/genetics , Yellow fever virus/immunologyABSTRACT
Clinical outcome upon infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ranges from silent infection to lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We have found an enrichment in rare variants predicted to be loss-of-function (LOF) at the 13 human loci known to govern Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3)- and interferon regulatory factor 7 (IRF7)-dependent type I interferon (IFN) immunity to influenza virus in 659 patients with life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia relative to 534 subjects with asymptomatic or benign infection. By testing these and other rare variants at these 13 loci, we experimentally defined LOF variants underlying autosomal-recessive or autosomal-dominant deficiencies in 23 patients (3.5%) 17 to 77 years of age. We show that human fibroblasts with mutations affecting this circuit are vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2. Inborn errors of TLR3- and IRF7-dependent type I IFN immunity can underlie life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia in patients with no prior severe infection.