Antibodies may Wreak Havoc Against COVID-19

Rogue antibodies wreak havoc in severe COVID-19 cases

One of the long-term hopes of ending the pandemic has been the development of antibodies to the COVID-19 virus. However, immune system turncoats are also major culprits in severe cases of COVID-19, as per a report from Yale University published in the journal Nature.

These autoantibodies target and react with a person's tissues or organs similar to ones that cause autoimmune diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. Healthy tissues in the brain, blood vessels, platelets, liver, and gastrointestinal tract, can be attacked in COVID-19 cases. The greater the disease severity experienced by patients, the more is the autoantibodies detected. And the autoantibodies were also found to paradoxically target and interfere with many immune system proteins that are designed to fend off infections.

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‘Rogue antibodies wreak havoc in severe COVID-19 cases. The development of antibodies to the COVID-19 virus has been the great long-term hope of ending the pandemic. However, immune system turncoats are also major culprits in severe cases of COVID-19.’

"It's a two-edge sword. Antibodies are crucial to fend off infection, but some COVID-19 patients also develop antibodies that damage their own cells and tissues. It is clear that in many cases the presence of coronavirus drove the creation of the damaging autoantibodies. But it is also likely that some COVID-19 patients had pre-existing autoantibodies that made them more susceptible to infection," says Aaron Ring, assistant professor of immunobiology at Yale and senior author of the paper.

Antibodies against COVID-19

It was reported by the study that mice with these same autoantibodies were more susceptible to infection by the COVID-19 virus and more likely to die. The prolonged existence of these rogue autoantibodies succumbs an individual to long COVID cases. This could be the unfortunate legacy of the virus.

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"Our findings reinforce the importance of getting vaccinated. The fact that even mild infections are associated with autoantibody production underscores the potential for long-term health consequences of COVID-19," says co-corresponding author Akiko Iwasaki, the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology at Yale.

Blood samples from 194 patients who had contracted the virus, with varying degrees of severity, were analyzed for the presence of autoantibodies that would further help in the development of clinical efforts to combat COVID-19.

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Rapid Extracellular Antigen Profiling (REAP) – a novel technology developed by Ring's lab to identify autoantibody was utilized to note their interactions with nearly 3,000 human proteins. These findings may lead to strategies to treat or prevent the damaging effects of autoantibodies in COVID-19 patients.

Moreover, the new REAP technology could be used to pinpoint important antibody responses for many other disease conditions beyond COVID-19.

Source-Medindia