{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T08:57:58Z","timestamp":1790672278636,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,30]],"date-time":"2021-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1632960000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Endocrinol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>Some studies have indicated that interferon (IFN) may be valuable in COVID-19. We aimed to evaluate the impact of short-term IFN on incident thyroid dysfunction and autoimmunity among COVID-19 survivors.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>We included consecutive adults without known thyroid disorder admitted to Queen Mary Hospital for COVID-19 from July 2020 to January 2021 who had thyroid function tests (TFTs) and anti-thyroid antibodies measured both on admission and at three months.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>226 patients were included (median age 55.0 years; 49.6% men): 135 were IFN-treated. There tended to be more abnormal TFTs upon reassessment in IFN-treated patients (8.1% <jats:italic>vs<\/jats:italic> 2.2%, p=0.080). 179 patients (65.4% IFN-treated) had a complete reassessment of anti-thyroid antibodies. There were significant increases in titres of both anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies (anti-TPO: baseline 29.21 units [IQR: 14.97 \u2013 67.14] <jats:italic>vs<\/jats:italic> reassessment 34.30 units [IQR: 18.82 \u2013 94.65], p&amp;lt;0.001) and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies (anti-Tg: baseline 8.23 units [IQR: 5.40 \u2013 18.44] <jats:italic>vs<\/jats:italic> reassessment 9.14 units [IQR: 6.83 \u2013 17.17], p=0.001) in the IFN-treated group but not IFN-na\u00efve group. IFN treatment (standardised beta 0.245, p=0.001) was independently associated with changes in anti-TPO titre. Of the 143 patients negative for anti-TPO at baseline, 8 became anti-TPO positive upon reassessment (seven IFN-treated; one IFN-na\u00efve). Incident anti-TPO positivity was more likely to be associated with abnormal TFTs upon reassessment (phi 0.188, p=0.025).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>IFN for COVID-19 was associated with modest increases in anti-thyroid antibody titres, and a trend of more incident anti-TPO positivity and abnormal TFTs during convalescence. Our findings suggest that clinicians monitor the thyroid function and anti-thyroid antibodies among IFN-treated COVID-19 survivors, and call for further follow-up studies regarding the clinical significance of these changes.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fendo.2021.746602","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,30]],"date-time":"2021-09-30T18:37:23Z","timestamp":1633027043000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["The Impact of Interferon Beta-1b Therapy on Thyroid Function and Autoimmunity Among COVID-19 Survivors"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"David Tak Wai","family":"Lui","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ivan Fan Ngai","family":"Hung","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chi 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