Explaining COVID-19 postvaccination-related immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia: a hypothesis-generating in-silico approach.
Hum Vaccin Immunother
; 18(5): 2050654, 2022 11 30.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1784264
ABSTRACT
Cases that experienced COVID-19 postvaccination-related thrombosis have been reported after the first dose of ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (Vaxzevria, AstraZeneca) or Ad26.COV2.S (Johnson & Johnson/Janssen) vaccine. These rare thrombotic events were observed within the expected vaccine-induced seroconversion period and could be attributed to platelet-activating (auto)antibodies against platelet factor 4 (PF4). Newly, vaccine-induced, cross-reactive anti-PF4 antibodies could explain this observation. An in-silico analysis using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool was used to identify sequence similarity between PF4 and antigens contained in or encoded by ChAdOx1 nCov-19 or Ad26.COV2.S vaccines. Only one sequence within the signaling peptide of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein exhibited a high percent identity (85.71%) with PF4. This sequence overlaps with a proven immunogenic peptide recognized from convalescent COVID-19 sera and could be responsible for the formation of platelet-activating immunocomplexes in susceptible patients. Manipulation of the immunogenicity of this particular sequence within the encoded SARS-CoV-2 spike protein signaling peptide may eliminate this iatrogenic severe adverse effect.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Thrombocytopenia
/
Thrombosis
/
Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Hum Vaccin Immunother
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
21645515.2022.2050654
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