PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Claudia Gomes
AU  - Marisol Zuniga
AU  - Kelly A Crotty
AU  - Kun Qian
AU  - Nubia Catalina Tovar
AU  - Lawrence Hsu Lin
AU  - Kimon V Argyropoulos
AU  - Robert Clancy
AU  - Peter Izmirly
AU  - Jill Buyon
AU  - David C Lee
AU  - Maria Fernanda Yasnot-Acosta
AU  - Huilin Li
AU  - Paolo Cotzia
AU  - Ana Rodriguez
TI  - Autoimmune anti-DNA and anti-phosphatidylserine antibodies predict development of severe COVID-19
AID  - 10.26508/lsa.202101180
DP  - 2021 Nov 01
TA  - Life Science Alliance
PG  - e202101180
VI  - 4
IP  - 11
4099  - https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/4/11/e202101180.short
4100  - https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/4/11/e202101180.full
SO  - Life Sci. Alliance2021 Nov 01; 4
AB  - High levels of autoimmune antibodies are observed in COVID-19 patients but their specific contribution to disease severity and clinical manifestations remains poorly understood. We performed a retrospective study of 115 COVID-19 hospitalized patients with different degrees of severity to analyze the generation of autoimmune antibodies to common antigens: a lysate of erythrocytes, the lipid phosphatidylserine (PS) and DNA. High levels of IgG autoantibodies against erythrocyte lysates were observed in a large percentage (up to 36%) of patients. Anti-DNA and anti-PS antibodies determined upon hospital admission correlated strongly with later development of severe disease, showing a positive predictive value of 85.7% and 92.8%, respectively. Patients with positive values for at least one of the two autoantibodies accounted for 24% of total severe cases. Statistical analysis identified strong correlations between anti-DNA antibodies and markers of cell injury, coagulation, neutrophil levels and erythrocyte size. Anti-DNA and anti-PS autoantibodies may play an important role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and could be developed as predictive biomarkers for disease severity and specific clinical manifestations.