Prevalent and persistent new-onset autoantibodies in mild to severe COVID-19

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Abstract

Autoantibodies have been shown to be implied in COVID-19 but the emerging autoantibody repertoire remains largely unexplored. We investigated the new-onset autoantibody repertoire in 525 healthcare workers and hospitalized COVID-19 patients in five time points over 16 months using proteome-wide and targeted protein and peptide arrays. Our results show that prevalent new-onset autoantibodies against a wide range of antigens emerged following SARS-CoV-2 infection in relation to pre-infectious baseline samples and remained elevated for at least 12 months. We demonstrated associations between distinct new-onset autoantibodies and neuropsychiatric symptoms post-COVID-19. Using epitope mapping, we determined the main epitopes of selected new-onset autoantibodies, validated them in independent cohorts of neuro-COVID and pre-pandemic healthy controls, and identified molecular mimicry between main epitopes and the conserved fusion peptide of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike glycoprotein. Our work describes the complexity and dynamics of the autoantibody repertoire emerging with COVID-19 and supports the need for continued analysis of the new-onset autoantibody repertoire to elucidate the mechanisms of the post-COVID-19 condition.

Article activity feed

  1. Siddharth Sridhar, James Yiu-Hung Tsoi

    Review 3: "Prevalent and Persistent New-Onset Autoantibodies in Mild to Severe COVID-19"

    The findings suggest that novel autoantibodies identified in the study may serve as important biomarkers for predicting the onset and persistence of autoimmune diseases in individuals affected by COVID-19.

  2. Marvin J Fritzler

    Review 2: "Prevalent and Persistent New-Onset Autoantibodies in Mild to Severe COVID-19"

    The findings suggest that novel autoantibodies identified in the study may serve as important biomarkers for predicting the onset and persistence of autoimmune diseases in individuals affected by COVID-19.

  3. Terry O Harville

    Review 1: "Prevalent and Persistent New-Onset Autoantibodies in Mild to Severe COVID-19"

    The findings suggest that novel autoantibodies identified in the study may serve as important biomarkers for predicting the onset and persistence of autoimmune diseases in individuals affected by COVID-19.

  4. Strength of evidence

    Reviewers: T O Harville (University of Arkansas) | 📒📒📒 ◻️◻️
    M J Fritzler (University of Calgary) | 📒📒📒◻️◻️
    S Sridhar & J Y Tsoi(University of Hong Kong) | 📒📒📒◻️◻️