Autoantibodies are known to be involved in systemic lupus erythematosus and other autoimmune diseases. More recently,
severe COVID-19 patients were also shown to harbor auto-antibodies against type I interferons. It is important to be able to
quantitate the extent of the action of these autoantibodies in neutralizating or stabilizating inflammatory molecules. The difficulty arises when circulating levels of these molecules are so low that standard techniques are not suited for this evaluation. The digital counting of single molecules by Simoa bead technology allows quantitation of baseline levels of IFNα and cytokines, enabling researchers to evaluate the magnitude of action of autoantibodies.