SARS-CoV-2 and human retroelements: a case for molecular mimicry?
BMC Genom Data
; 23(1): 27, 2022 04 08.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1840943
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The factors driving the late phase of COVID-19 are still poorly understood. However, autoimmunity is an evolving theme in COVID-19's pathogenesis. Additionally, deregulation of human retroelements (RE) is found in many viral infections, and has also been reported in COVID-19.RESULTS:
Unexpectedly, coronaviruses (CoV) - including SARS-CoV-2 - harbour many RE-identical sequences (up to 35 base pairs), and some of these sequences are part of SARS-CoV-2 epitopes associated to COVID-19 severity. Furthermore, RE are expressed in healthy controls and human cells and become deregulated after SARS-CoV-2 infection, showing mainly changes in long interspersed nuclear element (LINE1) expression, but also in endogenous retroviruses.CONCLUSION:
CoV and human RE share coding sequences, which are targeted by antibodies in COVID-19 and thus could induce an autoimmune loop by molecular mimicry.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Genom Data
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12863-022-01040-2
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