High prevalence of autoantibodies neutralizing type I IFNs in Japanese patients with hepatitis C
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Autoantibodies neutralizing type I IFNs (AAN-I-IFNs) are being identified as major, common, and global determinants of a growing range of severe viral diseases. We examined whether persistent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, with or without IFN-α therapy, could induce AAN-I-IFNs. We tested 2,573 HCV patients aged 1-95 years (1,115 treated with IFN-α, 1,458 untreated) and 1,000 healthy controls. AAN-INF-α2 prevalence was significantly higher in hepatitis C patients (2.7%) than in healthy controls (0.7%) and was higher still in those treated with IFN-α (3.9%) than in untreated patients (1.9%) (P = 0.0053). A longitudinal study of 15 IFN-α-treated patients with AAN-IFN-α2 revealed that only one had AAN-IFN-α2 before IFN-α therapy and that 12 patients developed AAN-IFN-α2 in the year following treatment. However, 80% eventually became AAN-IFN-α2 negative. These findings suggest that chronic HCV infection, perhaps due to the chronic production of endogenous IFN-α, and exogenous IFN-α treatment promote the development of AAN-IFN-α2.
Source: Journal of Human Immunity
Authors: Maki Taniguchi, Chiaki Tao, Takaki Asano, Miyuki Tsumura, Ko Ko, Hiroko Kumada, Takanori Utsumi, Kosuke Noma, Fumiaki Sakura, Kosuke Ashihara, Moe Tamaura, Yoko Mizoguchi, Osamu Ohara, Dusan Bogunovic, Paul Bastard, Jean-Laurent Casanova, Junko Tanaka, Masataka Tsuge, Kazuaki Chayama, Shiro Oka, Satoshi Okada
Institutions: Hiroshima University, Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University, Kazusa DNA Research Institute, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, Inserm, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, Human Genetic of Infectious Diseases, Institut des Maladies Génétiques Imagine, Rockefeller University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Hiroshima University Hospital, RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences
Language: English
Topic: Hepatitis C virus research
Subfield: Hepatology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Awards: Long-read sequencing analysis for difficult to diagnose cases of primary immunodeficiency, I型インターフェロン中和抗体の迅速検出法開発と多様な感染症での重症化予測への応用, 宿主免疫異常に着目したCOVID-19小児例における重症化の分子機構の解明, G3795087524, サイトカイン中和抗体に起因する先天性免疫異常症類似症の疾患概念確立に向けたエビデンス創出, G4893803543, 包括的アプローチに基づく小児 COVID-19 関連多系統炎症性症候群の病態解析と臨床像の解明, G5272523652, G6049888874, G7552308055, G7708230465
OpenAlex ID: W7213430544