Autoimmunity and COVID-19: A Prospective Monocentric Follow-Up Study

The study "Autoimmunità e Covid-19: uno studio prospettico monocentrico di follow-up" conducted a follow-up on 13 out of 40 patients from a previous study who had tested positive for COVID-19 and had shown the presence of autoantibodies. The same autoimmunity tests were performed on these patients at 3 and 6 months after admission. The results showed that 9 patients still had autoantibodies present at follow-up. One patient, who was negative at admission, developed strong positivity for ANA and Mi2-β and Ku antigens at both 3 and 6 months. Only one patient showed the presence of new circulating autoantibodies at 3 months, and two patients were consistently negative throughout the observation period. The study concludes that after 6 months, autoantibodies are still present in the majority of the enrolled population. Further investigations are needed to determine if these patients will become negative over time or may develop clinical symptoms consistent with autoimmune disease, and to understand if an alteration of the autoimmune system can be considered effects of coronavirus (long COVID-19).