RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Autoimmune anti-DNA and anti-phosphatidylserine antibodies predict development of severe COVID-19
JF Life Science Alliance
JO Life Sci. Alliance
FD Life Science Alliance LLC
SP e202101180
DO 10.26508/lsa.202101180
VO 4
IS 11
A1 Claudia Gomes
A1 Marisol Zuniga
A1 Kelly A Crotty
A1 Kun Qian
A1 Nubia Catalina Tovar
A1 Lawrence Hsu Lin
A1 Kimon V Argyropoulos
A1 Robert Clancy
A1 Peter Izmirly
A1 Jill Buyon
A1 David C Lee
A1 Maria Fernanda Yasnot-Acosta
A1 Huilin Li
A1 Paolo Cotzia
A1 Ana Rodriguez
YR 2021
UL https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/4/11/e202101180.abstract
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.