SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain-specific antibodies activate platelets with features resembling the pathogenic antibodies in heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.

ABSTRACT: Severe COVID-19 is associated with unprecedented thromboembolic complications. We found that hospitalized COVID-19 patients develop immunoglobulin Gs (IgGs) that recognize a complex consisting of platelet factor 4 and heparin similar to those developed in heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (HIT), however, independent of heparin exposure. These antibodies activate platelets in the presence of TLR9 stimuli, stimuli that are prominent in COVID-19. Strikingly, 4 out of 42 antibodies cloned from IgG1⁺ RBD-binding B cells could activate platelets. These antibodies possessed, in the heavy-chain complementarity-determining region 3, an RKH or Y₅ motif that we recently described among platelet-activating antibodies cloned from HIT patients. RKH and Y₅ m

SUBMITTER: Zhu W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8132233 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature