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The Intersection of COVID-19 and Autoimmunity: What is Our Current Understanding?

N WinchesterC CalabreseLeonard H Calabrese
Published in: Pathogens & immunity (2021)
Viral infections have historically had a complex relationship with autoimmune diseases. For patients with preexisting autoimmune disorders, often complicated by immunosuppressive therapies, there are numerous potential effects of COVID-19, a disease of complex immunobiology, including the potential for an altered natural history of COVID-19 when infected. In addition, individuals without recognized autoimmune disease may be vulnerable to virally induced autoimmunity in the forms of autoantibody formation, as well as the development of clinical immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Until quite recently in the pandemic, this relationship between COVID-19 and autoimmune diseases has been relatively underexplored; yet such investigation offers potential insights into immunopathogenesis as well as for the development of new immune-based therapeutics. Our review examines this relationship through exploration of a series of questions with relevance to both immunopathogenic mechanisms as well as some clinical implications.
Keyphrases
  • sars cov
  • coronavirus disease
  • respiratory syndrome coronavirus
  • multiple sclerosis
  • drug induced
  • small molecule
  • diabetic rats
  • climate change
  • celiac disease
  • risk assessment