TY  - JOUR
A1  - Koch, Benjamin Florian
T1  - SARS-CoV-2 and human retroelements: a case for molecular mimicry?
T2  - BMC genomic data
N2  - 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.
KW  - Coronaviruses
KW  - SARS-CoV-2
KW  - COVID-19 epitope signatures
KW  - Autoimmunity
KW  - Molecular mimicry
KW  - Human retroelements
KW  - Long interspersed nuclear elements (LINE)
KW  - Endogenous retroviruses (ERV)
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/69511
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-695117
SN  - 2730-6844
N1  - Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
VL  - 23
IS  - art. 27
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - BioMed Central
CY  - [London]
ER  -