Paradoxical sex-specific patterns of autoantibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection

作者：Yunxian Liu, Joseph E. Ebinger, Rowann Mostafa, Petra Ilse Budde, Jana Gajewski, Brian Walker, Sandy Y. Joung, Min Wu, Manuel Bräutigam, Franziska Hesping, Elena Rupieper, Ann-Sophie Schubert, Hans‐Dieter Zucht, Jonathan G. Braun, GIL Y. MELMED, Kimia Sobhani, Moshe Arditi, Jennifer E. Van Eyk, Susan C. Cheng, Justyna Fert‐Bober · 发表于：Journal of Translational Medicine · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1186/s12967-021-03184-8 · 被引用次数：82 · 研究领域：SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research、COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies、Long-Term Effects of COVID-19

BACKGROUND: Pronounced sex differences in the susceptibility and response to SARS-CoV-2 infection remain poorly understood. Emerging evidence has highlighted the potential importance of autoimmune activation in modulating the acute response and recovery trajectories following SARS-CoV-2 exposure. Given that immune-inflammatory activity can be sex-biased in the setting of severe COVID-19 illness, the aim of the study was to examine sex-specific autoimmune reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 in the absence of extreme clinical disease. METHODS: In this study, we assessed autoantibody (AAB) reactivity to 91 autoantigens previously linked to a range of classic autoimmune diseases in a cohort of 177 participants (65% women, 35% men, mean age of 35) with confirmed evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection based on presence of antibody to the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2. Data were compared to 53 pre-pandemic healthy controls (49% women, 51% men). For each participant, socio-demographic data, serological analyses, SARS-CoV-2 infection status and COVID-19 related symptoms were collected by an electronic survey of questions. The symptoms burden score was constructed based on the total number of reported symptoms (N = 21) experienced within 6 months prior to the blood draw, wherein a greater number of symptoms corresponded to a higher score and assigned as more severe burden. RESULTS: In multivariable analyses, we observed sex-specific patterns of autoreactivity associated with the presence or ...