A Review Pertaining to SARS-CoV-2 and Autoimmune Diseases: What Is the Connection?

• Published in: Life (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 12; no. 11; p. 1918
• Main Authors: Kocivnik, Nina, Velnar, Tomaz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01-11-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Antigens; Arthritis; Autoimmune diseases; B cells; Care and treatment; Chemokines; Chronic conditions; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Cytokines; Cytotoxicity; Development and progression; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetes mellitus (insulin dependent); Disease transmission; Dyspnea; Epidemics; Fatalities; Fibrosis; Guillain-Barre syndrome; Health aspects; Hepatitis; Immune response; Immune system; Immunomodulation; Immunosuppressive agents; Infections; Inflammation; Inflammatory diseases; Ligands; Lung diseases; Lupus; Lymphocytes; Medical research; Multiple sclerosis; Neutrophils; Pandemics; Pneumonia; Proteins; Respiratory diseases; Review; Rheumatoid arthritis; Rheumatoid factor; Risk factors; Sarcoidosis; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Systemic lupus erythematosus; Viral diseases; Virus diseases; Viruses; Slovenia; COVID-19; autoimmune diseases; SARS-CoV-2; immune response; inflammation
• ISSN: 2075-1729; 2075-1729
• DOI: 10.3390/life12111918

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious viral disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is known that infection with SARS-CoV-2 can lead to various autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. There are few reports in the literature on the association between SARS-CoV-2 and autoimmune diseases, and the number of reports has been increasing since 2020. Autoimmune diseases and SARS-CoV-2 infections are intertwined in several ways. Both conditions lead to immune-mediated tissue damage, the immune response is accompanied by the increased secretion of inflammatory cytokines and both conditions can be treated using immunomodulatory drugs. Patients with certain autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, cardiac sarcoidosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, autoimmune hepatitis, multiple sclerosis and others, are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, either because of the active autoimmune disease or because of the medications used to treat it. Conversely, SARS-CoV-2 infection can also cause certain autoimmune diseases. In this paper, we describe the development of autoimmune diseases after COVID-19 and the recovery from COVID-19 in people with autoimmune diseases.