Erythrocytes Induce Vascular Dysfunction in COVID-19 (preprint)

Background: Vascular injury has been implicated as a major cause of clinical complications in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) based on autopsy studies showing destruction of the endothelial architecture. Red blood cells (RBCs) are affected by COVID-19 with alterations in their structure and function, possibly altering disease progress. Objectives: This study was designed to test the hypothesis of persistent endothelial dysfunction and that RBCs act as mediators of endothelial dysfunction in COVID-19. Methods and results: COVID-19 patients displayed profound endothelial dysfunction in vivo assessed with pulse amplitude tonometry, both in the acute phase and at follow-up four months later. RBCs but not plasma from COVID-19 patients in the acute phase incubated with healthy rat aorta induced severe endothelial dysfunction ex vivo compared to RBCs from healthy subjects. Further, these RBCs induced vascular arginase 1 and oxidative stress. Consequently, inhibition of vascular arginase or superoxide attenuated endothelial dysfunction induced by RBCs from COVID-19 patients. These RBCs were characterized by increased production of reactive oxygen species and reduced export of the nitric oxide metabolite nitrate. RBCs from COVID-19 patients at follow-up did not affect vascular function. Pre-incubation of RBCs from healthy subjects with interferon-γ impaired endothelial function.Conclusions: This study demonstrates the presence of persistent endothelial dysfunction in an otherwise mainly healthy population hospitalized for COVID-19, and implicates a role of RBCs as mediators of endothelial injury. These data shed light on a new pathological mechanism underlying vascular dysfunction in COVID-19 and lay the foundation for future therapeutic developments.

Potent Neutralization Antibodies Induced by a Recombinant Trimeric Spike Protein Vaccine Candidate Containing PIKA Adjuvant for COVID-19.

The structures of immunogens that elicit the most potent neutralization antibodies to prevent COVID-19 infection are still under investigation. In this study, we tested the efficacy of a recombinant trimeric Spike protein containing polyI:C (PIKA) adjuvant in mice immunized by a 0-7-14 day schedule. The results showed that a Spike protein-specific antibody was induced at Day 21 with titer of above 50,000 on average, as measured by direct binding. The neutralizing titer was above 1000 on average, as determined by a pseudo-virus using monoclonal antibodies (40592-MM57 and 40591-MM43) with IC50 at 1 µg/mL as standards. The protein/peptide array-identified receptor-binding domain (RBD) was considered as immunodominant. No linear epitopes were found in the RBD, although several linear epitopes were found in the C-terminal domain right after the RBD and heptad repeat regions. Our study supports the efficacy of a recombinant trimeric Spike protein vaccine candidate for COVID-19 that is safe and ready for storage and distribution in developing countries.