SARS-CoV-2 and human retroelements: a case for molecular mimicry?
- 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.
Author: | Benjamin Florian KochORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-695117 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-022-01040-2 |
ISSN: | 2730-6844 |
Parent Title (English): | BMC genomic data |
Publisher: | BioMed Central |
Place of publication: | [London] |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2022/04/08 |
Date of first Publication: | 2022/04/08 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2023/06/02 |
Tag: | Autoimmunity; COVID-19 epitope signatures; Coronaviruses; Endogenous retroviruses (ERV); Human retroelements; Long interspersed nuclear elements (LINE); Molecular mimicry; SARS-CoV-2 |
Volume: | 23 |
Issue: | art. 27 |
Article Number: | 27 |
Page Number: | 9 |
First Page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 9 |
Note: | Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. |
Institutes: | Medizin |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit |
Sammlungen: | Universitätspublikationen |
Licence (German): | Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |