Anti-chemokine antibodies after SARS-CoV-2 infection correlate with favorable disease course

ABSTRACT

Infection by SARS-CoV-2 leads to diverse symptoms, which can persist for months beyond the acute phase of the disease. While antiviral antibodies are protective, the presence of antibodies against interferons and other immune factors is associated with adverse COVID-19 outcomes. Instead, we discovered that antibodies against specific chemokines are omnipresent after COVID-19, associated with favorable disease, and predictive of lack of long COVID symptoms at one year post infection. Autoantibody levels against some chemokines are sustained or even increasing over time. Anti-chemokine antibodies are present also in HIV-1 and autoimmune disorders, but they target different chemokines than those in COVID-19. Finally, monoclonal antibodies derived from COVID-19 convalescents that bind to the chemokine N-loop impair cell migration. Given the role of chemokines in orchestrating immune cell trafficking, naturally arising anti-chemokine antibodies that are associated with favorable COVID-19 may be beneficial through modulation of the inflammatory response and thus bear therapeutic potential.