Certain forms of myasthenia gravis carry a higher risk of pneumonia during the Covid-19 pandemic

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As part of an international, multicentre observational study focusing on respiratory complications, clinicians analysed the outcomes of patients with myasthenia gravis during the COVID-19 pandemic:

  • clinical and immunological data from 85 patients who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 nor treated with antivirals were included in the study,
  • 48 of whom developed severe, hypoxemic pneumonia during the pandemic,
  • half of these patients had autoantibodies against type I interferons,
  • this seropositivity was significantly higher than that observed in the general population infected with SARS-CoV-2,

These data confirm the association between autoantibodies against interferon and the risk of severe pneumonia following SARS-CoV-2 infection, particularly in patients with myasthenia gravis, in whom this risk increases significantly.

High risk of hypoxemic COVID-19 pneumonia in myasthenia gravis patients with type I IFN autoantibodies. Gervais A, Marchal A, Maillard A et al Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2026 Aug.

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