Autoantibodies against interferons and other immune mediators have been linked to negative outcomes following infection with SARS-CoV-2. By contrast, this study suggests that autoantibodies targeting chemokines could have beneficial effects in COVID-19. The authors obtained plasma from three independent cohorts of patients and they measured antibody reactivity against the N-terminal loop of all 43 human chemokines. Interestingly, the presence of autoantibodies against specific chemokines could identify convalescent individuals who had better disease courses in the settings of both acute COVID-19 and long COVID. At 6 months post-infection, individuals who had higher levels of autoantibodies against CCL21, CXCL13 and CXCL16 were less likely to have developed long COVID. Autoantibodies isolated from these patients could block B cell chemotaxis in vitro. The authors propose that these chemokine-targeting autoantibodies could dampen potentially harmful immune responses that drive COVID-19 pathology.
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Muri, J. et al. Autoantibodies against chemokines post-SARS-CoV-2 infection correlate with disease course. Nat. Immunol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01445-w (2023)
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Bordon, Y. Autoantibodies against chemokines linked with better disease outcomes in COVID-19. Nat Rev Immunol 23, 203 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-023-00860-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-023-00860-2