Incidence of autoantibodies related to systemic autoimmunity in patients with severe COVID-19 admitted to the intensive care unit

Abstract

Objective To assess the prevalence of autoantibodies (AAbs) in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients and to investigate whether AAbs influence the clinical outcome. Methods Serum samples were drawn within the first 48 hours upon admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) from 217 consecutive patients, from January 1st, 2021, to May 10th, 2021, and investigated for the presence of AAbs using conventional techniques. Serum samples (n=117) of age- and sex-matched healthy individuals collected before COVID-19 pandemic were used as controls. Results COVID-19 patients in the ICU had more commonly AAbs compared to age- and sex-matched controls (174/217, 80.2% vs. 73/117, 62.4%, p<0.001). Patients expressed more frequently ANAs (48.4% vs. 21.4%, p<0.001), anti-dsDNA (5.1% vs. 0%, p=0.01), anti-CCP (8.3% vs. 1.7%, p=0.014) and anti-CL IgM AAbs (21.7% vs. 9.4%, p=0.005) than controls, respectively. Simultaneous reactivity against at least three autoantigens, occurred in 144 out of 174 (82.8%) patients. The two groups did not differ in terms of clinicoepidemiologic characteristics or the mortality ratio within the ICU. Patients who died compared to convalescents were older, had higher ferritin, D-dimers levels, APACHE II score, lower oxygen saturation, higher prevalence of comorbidities and cognitive dysfunction. However, AAbs were not found to correlate with the clinical outcome. Conclusion Patients with severe COVID-19 express AAbs more commonly compared to controls. No correlation was found between AAbs and disease outcome.