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

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Jernbom AF, Skoglund L, Pin E, Sjöberg R, Tegel H, Hober S, Rostami E, Rasmusson A, Cunningham JL, Havervall S, Thålin C, Månberg A, Nilsson P

Nat Commun 15 (1) 8941 [2024-10-17; online 2024-10-17]

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 at five time points over a 16-month period in 2020 and 2021 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 found an increased prevalence of new-onset autoantibodies after severe COVID-19 and 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 sequence similarities suggestive of 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.

Autoimmunity and Serology Profiling [Collaborative]

PubMed 39414823

DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-53356-5

Crossref 10.1038/s41467-024-53356-5

pmc: PMC11484904
pii: 10.1038/s41467-024-53356-5