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.
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| Author: | Benjamin Florian KochORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| 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 |
