Science Bite (3 minute oral presentation with PPT in live session and poster) - Students, ECRs and EMCRs only 15th Lorne Infection and Immunity 2025

Autoimmunity and molecular mimicry in COVID-19 (#322)

Rhiane Moody 1 , Georgia Goodchild 1 , Cyril Deceneux 1 , Joshuah Fialho 1 , Monica Prakash 1 , Sabrina Sonda 2 3 , Fay H Johnston 4 5 , Kylie J Smith 4 5 , Nicola Stephens 6 , Michelle McPherson 6 , James H McMahon 7 8 , Ben Rogers 8 , Katie Flanagan 1 2 3 , Magdalena Plebanski 1
  1. School of Health and Biomedical Science, STEM College, RMIT University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia
  2. School of Health Sciences and School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, Australia
  3. Tasmanian Vaccine Trial Centre, Clifford Craig Foundation, Launceston General Hospital, Launceston, TAS, Australia
  4. Public Health Services, Department of Health, Tasmania, TAS, Australia
  5. Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia
  6. Tasmanian School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia
  7. Department of Infectious Diseases, The Alfred Hospital and Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  8. Department of Infectious Diseases, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, VIC, Australia

While primarily considered a respiratory disease, COVID-19 can result in multi-organ pathologies, including autoimmune and autoimmune-like complications. With other viral infections known to be associated with, or exacerbate autoimmune diseases through molecular mimicry, we hypothesized it could also contribute to COVID-19 associated complications. Indeed, regions of sequence identity and similarity between SARS-CoV-2 and human proteins have been found in silico, albeit no studies have validated these in clinical samples. Previously, we applied novel immune cross-reactivity criteria and identified 11 novel predicted B cell-epitopes within human proteins, with the potential to be cross-reactive with SARS-CoV-2 and explain aspects of COVID-19 pathology (1). Herein, plasma or sera collected from cohorts of both COVID-19 negative and convalescent volunteers, from Victoria and Tasmania (n=290), was tested by indirect ELISAs to measure IgG specific antibodies to the full-length SARS-CoV-2 epitopes and their corresponding epitopes identified in human proteins. Responses were confirmed towards 7 SARS-CoV-2 specific epitopes and 6 corresponding epitopes in human proteins. Two of the novel SARS-CoV-2 epitopes from the Nucleoprotein (NP) were recognised in most of the cohort, regardless of COVID-19 status (>83% positive), indicating potential environmental cross-reactivity. Overall, there was substantial donor heterogeneity, with most individuals responding to only either SARS-CoV-2 or it’s corresponding potentially cross-reactive human protein derived epitope, plus a small number of individuals who reacted to both. Overall, our study has identified novel B cell epitopes within human proteins, which mostly retain specific narrow recognition, and exhibit cross-reactivity potential in only a small subset of individuals. This unexpected finding highlights the need to validate predicted epitope cross-reactivities, even in largely identical sequences, testing in sufficiently comprehensive large clinical cohorts.

 

 

  1. 1. Moody R, Wilson KL, Boer JC, Holien JK, Flanagan KL, Jaworowski A, et al. Predicted B Cell Epitopes Highlight the Potential for COVID-19 to Drive Self-Reactive Immunity. Frontiers in Bioinformatics. 2021;1.