Interindividual clinical variability in the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection is immense. We report that at least 101 of 987 patients with life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia had neutralizing IgG auto-Abs against IFN-ω (13 patients), the 13 types of IFN-α (36), or both (52), at the onset of critical disease; a few also had auto-Abs against the other three type I IFNs. The auto-Abs neutralize the ability of the corresponding type I IFNs to block SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro. These auto-Abs were not found in 663 individuals with asymptomatic or mild SARS-CoV-2 infection and were present in only 4 of 1,227 healthy individuals. Patients with auto-Abs were aged 25 to 87 years and 95 were men. A B cell auto-immune phenocopy of inborn errors of type I IFN immunity underlies life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia in at least 2.6% of women and 12.5% of men.

Clinical outcome upon infection with SARS-CoV-2 ranges from silent infection to lethal COVID-19. We have found an enrichment in rare variants predicted to be loss-of-function (LOF) at the 13 human loci known to govern TLR3- and IRF7-dependent type I interferon (IFN) immunity to influenza virus, in 659 patients with life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia, relative to 534 subjects with asymptomatic or benign infection. By testing these and other rare variants at these 13 loci, we experimentally define LOF variants in 23 patients (3.5%), aged 17 to 77 years, underlying autosomal recessive or dominant deficiencies. We show that human fibroblasts with mutations affecting this pathway are vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2. Inborn errors of TLR3- and IRF7-dependent type I IFN immunity can underlie life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia in patients with no prior severe infection.

Efavirenz is an inducer of liver CYP3A4 in healthy volunteers, and interpatient differences in magnitude of induction is partly explained by variation in systemic drug exposure. However, efavirenz did not appear to induce intestinal CYP3A4 or intestinal P-glycoprotein. These results suggest that drug interactions caused by induction of CYP3A4 can be liver specific.

Background: A variety of antiarrhythmic drugs have been used to prevent recurrence of atrial fibrillation after conversion to sinus rhythm. We performed a systematic review to determine the effect of long-term treatment with those drugs on death, embolisms, adverse effects, and atrial fibrillation recurrence.Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library (all up to May 2005), and the reference lists of retrieved articles. We included randomized controlled trials that compared any antiarrhythmic against control (placebo or no treatment) or another antiarrhythmic, for more than 6 months. Postoperative atrial fibrillation was excluded. Two evaluators independently reviewed the retrieved studies and extracted all data. Disagreements were resolved by discussion. All results were calculated at 1 year of follow-up.Results: Forty-four trials were included, with a total of 11 322 patients. Several class IA (disopyramide phos-phate, quinidine sulfate), class IC (flecainide acetate, propafenone hydrochloride), and class III (amiodarone, dofetilide, sotalol hydrochloride) drugs significantly reduced recurrence of atrial fibrillation (number needed to treat, 2-9), but all increased withdrawals due to adverse effects (number needed to harm [NNH], 9-27) and all but amiodarone and propafenone increased proarrhythmia (NNH,. Class IA drugs, pooled, were associated with increased mortality compared with controls (Peto odds ratio, 2.39; 95% confidence interval, 1. P=.04; NNH, 109). No other antiarrhythmic showed a significant effect on mortality compared with controls. We could not analyze other outcomes because data were lacking. Conclusion:Class IA, IC, and III drugs are effective in maintaining sinus rhythm but increase adverse effects, and class IA drugs may increase mortality.

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Protein expression levels of drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters in human jejunal tissues excised from morbidly obese subjects during gastric bypass surgery were evaluated using quantitative targeted absolute proteomics. Protein expression levels of 15 cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, 10 UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) enzymes, and NADPH-P450 reductase (P450R) in microsomal fractions from 28 subjects and 49 transporters in plasma membrane fractions from 24 of the same subjects were determined using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Based on average values, UGT1A1, UGT2B15, UGT2B17, SGLT1, and GLUT2 exhibited high expression levels (over 10 fmol/μg protein), though UGT2B15 expression was detected at a high level in only one subject. CYP2C9, CYP2D6, CYP3A5, UGT1A6, P450R, ABCG2, GLUT5, PEPT1, MCT1, 4F2 cell-surface antigen heavy chain (4F2hc), LAT2, OSTα, and OSTβ showed intermediate levels (1-10 fmol/μg protein), and CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP1B1, CYP2C18, CYP2C19, CYP2J2, CYP3A7, CYP4A11, CYP51A1, UGT1A3, UGT1A4, UGT1A8, UGT2B4, ABCC1, ABCC4, ABCC5, ABCC6, ABCG8, TAUT, OATP2A1, OATP2B1, OATP3A1, OATP4A1, OCTN1, CNT2, PCFT, MCT4, GLUT4, and SLC22A18 showed low levels (less than 1 fmol/μg protein). The greatest interindividual difference (364-fold) was detected for UGT2B17. However, differences in expression levels of other quantified UGTs (except UGT2B15 and UGT2B17), CYPs (except CYP1A1 and CYP3A5), and P450R, and all quantified transporters, were within 10-fold. Expression levels of CYP1A2 and GLUT4 were significantly correlated with body-mass index. The levels of 4F2hc showed significant gender differences. Smokers showed increased levels of UGT1A1 and UGT1A3. These findings provide a basis for understanding the changes in molecular mechanisms of jejunal metabolism and transport, as well as their interindividual variability, in morbidly obese patients.

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