Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jul;20(7):397-398.
doi: 10.1038/s41577-020-0346-x. Epub 2020 May 26.

Dysregulation of type I interferon responses in COVID-19

Dhiraj Acharya  1 , GuanQun Liu  1 , Michaela U Gack  2
Affiliations

Dysregulation of type I interferon responses in COVID-19

Dhiraj Acharya et al. Nat Rev Immunol. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 can lead to excessive production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, but the production of type I interferons, which are key antiviral mediators, is reportedly blunted. Here, we discuss how imbalanced interferon responses may contribute to the pathology of COVID-19.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

References

    1. Blanco-Melo D, et al. Imbalanced host response to SARS-CoV-2 drives development of COVID-19. Cell. 2020 doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.026. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hadjadj J, et al. Impaired type I interferon activity and exacerbated inflammatory responses in severe Covid-19 patients. Preprint at medRxiv. 2020 doi: 10.1101/2020.04.19.20068015. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhou Z, et al. Heightened innate immune responses in the respiratory tract of COVID-19 patients. Cell Host Microbe. 2020 doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.04.017. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cameron MJ, et al. Interferon-mediated immunopathological events are associated with atypical innate and adaptive immune responses in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome. J. Virol. 2007;81:8692–8706. doi: 10.1128/JVI.00527-07. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Channappanavar R, et al. Dysregulated type I interferon and inflammatory monocyte-macrophage responses cause lethal pneumonia in SARS-CoV-infected mice. Cell Host Microbe. 2016;19:181–193. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2016.01.007. - DOI - PMC - PubMed