Matteo Fracella, Enrica Mancino, Raffaella Nenna, Chiara Virgillito, Federica Frasca, Alessandra D'Auria, Leonardo Sorrentino, Laura Petrarca, Domenico La Regina, Luigi Matera, Greta Di Mattia, Beniamino Caputo, Guido Antonelli, Alessandra Pierangeli, Raphael P Viscidi, Fabio Midulla, Carolina Scagnolari
SARS-CoV-2 typically causes mild symptoms in children, but evidence suggests that persistent immunopathological changes may lead to long COVID (LC). To explore the interplay between LC and innate immunity, we assessed the type I interferon (IFN-I) response in children and adolescents with LC symptoms (LC; n = 28). This was compared with age-matched SARS-CoV-2 recovered participants without LC symptoms (MC; n = 28) and healthy controls (HC; n = 18). We measured the mRNA expression of IFN-I (IFN-α/β/ε/ω), IFN-I receptor (IFNAR1/2), and ISGs (ISG15, ISG56, MxA, IFI27, BST2, LY6E, OAS1, OAS2, OAS3, and MDA5) in PBMCs collected 3-6 months after COVID-19...
March 24, 2024: European Journal of Immunology