ABSTRACT
The humoral arm of innate immunity includes diverse molecules with antibody-like functions, some of which serve as disease severity biomarkers in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The present study was designed to conduct a systematic investigation of the interaction of human humoral fluid-phase pattern recognition molecules (PRMs) with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Of 12 PRMs tested, the long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) and mannose-binding lectin (MBL) bound the viral nucleocapsid and spike proteins, respectively. MBL bound trimeric spike protein, including that of variants of concern (VoC), in a glycan-dependent manner and inhibited SARS-CoV-2 in three in vitro models. Moreover, after binding to spike protein, MBL activated the lectin pathway of complement activation. Based on retention of glycosylation sites and modeling, MBL was predicted to recognize the Omicron VoC. Genetic polymorphisms at the MBL2 locus were associated with disease severity. These results suggest that selected humoral fluid-phase PRMs can play an important role in resistance to, and pathogenesis of, COVID-19, a finding with translational implications.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/immunology , Immunity, Humoral , Receptors, Pattern Recognition/immunology , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , Animals , C-Reactive Protein/immunology , C-Reactive Protein/metabolism , COVID-19/metabolism , COVID-19/virology , Case-Control Studies , Chlorocebus aethiops , Complement Activation , Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Proteins/genetics , Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Proteins/immunology , Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Proteins/metabolism , Female , Glycosylation , HEK293 Cells , Host-Pathogen Interactions , Humans , Male , Mannose-Binding Lectin/genetics , Mannose-Binding Lectin/immunology , Mannose-Binding Lectin/metabolism , Phosphoproteins/genetics , Phosphoproteins/immunology , Phosphoproteins/metabolism , Polymorphism, Genetic , Protein Binding , Receptors, Pattern Recognition/genetics , Receptors, Pattern Recognition/metabolism , SARS-CoV-2/genetics , SARS-CoV-2/metabolism , SARS-CoV-2/pathogenicity , Serum Amyloid P-Component/immunology , Serum Amyloid P-Component/metabolism , Signal Transduction , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/genetics , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/immunology , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/metabolism , Vero CellsABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic is the most serious event of the year 2020, causing considerable global morbidity and mortality. The goal of this review is to provide a comprehensive summary of reported associations between inter-individual immunogenic variants and disease susceptibility or symptoms caused by the coronavirus strains severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus-2, and two of the main respiratory viruses, respiratory syncytial virus and influenza virus. The results suggest that the genetic background of the host could affect the levels of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines and might modulate the progression of Covid-19 in affected patients. Notably, genetic variations in innate immune components such as toll-like receptors and mannose-binding lectin 2 play critical roles in the ability of the immune system to recognize coronavirus and initiate an early immune response to clear the virus and prevent the development of severe symptoms. This review provides promising clues related to the potential benefits of using immunotherapy and immune modulation for respiratory infectious disease treatment in a personalized manner.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/immunology , Cytokine Release Syndrome/immunology , Genetic Predisposition to Disease , Influenza, Human/immunology , Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections/immunology , Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome/immunology , Antiviral Agents/therapeutic use , Biological Variation, Individual , COVID-19/genetics , COVID-19/virology , Cytokine Release Syndrome/drug therapy , Cytokine Release Syndrome/genetics , Cytokine Release Syndrome/virology , Gene Expression , Humans , Immunity, Innate , Immunologic Factors/therapeutic use , Influenza, Human/drug therapy , Influenza, Human/genetics , Influenza, Human/virology , Mannose-Binding Lectin/genetics , Mannose-Binding Lectin/immunology , Orthomyxoviridae/drug effects , Orthomyxoviridae/immunology , Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections/drug therapy , Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections/genetics , Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections/virology , Respiratory Syncytial Viruses/drug effects , Respiratory Syncytial Viruses/immunology , Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus/drug effects , Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus/immunology , SARS-CoV-2/classification , SARS-CoV-2/drug effects , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome/drug therapy , Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome/genetics , Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome/virology , Toll-Like Receptors/genetics , Toll-Like Receptors/immunology , COVID-19 Drug TreatmentABSTRACT
The identification of high-risk factors for the infection by SARS-CoV-2 and the negative outcome of COVID-19 is crucial. The genetic background of the host might account for individual responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection besides age and comorbidities. A list of candidate polymorphisms is needed to drive targeted screens, given the existence of frequent polymorphisms in the general population. We carried out text mining in the scientific literature to draw up a list of genes referable to the term "SARS-CoV*". We looked for frequent mutations that are likely to affect protein function in these genes. Ten genes, mostly involved in innate immunity, and thirteen common variants were identified, for some of these the involvement in COVID-19 is supported by publicly available epidemiological data. We looked for available data on the population distribution of these variants and we demonstrated that the prevalence of five of them, Arg52Cys (rs5030737), Gly54Asp (rs1800450) and Gly57Glu (rs1800451) in MBL2, Ala59Thr (rs25680) in CD27, and Val197Met (rs12329760) in TMPRSS2, correlates with the number of cases and/or deaths of COVID-19 observed in different countries. The association of the TMPRSS2 variant provides epidemiological evidence of the usefulness of transmembrane protease serine 2 inhibitors for the cure of COVID-19. The identified genetic variants represent a basis for the design of a cost-effective assay for population screening of genetic risk factors in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/genetics , COVID-19/immunology , Genetic Predisposition to Disease , Immunity, Innate , SARS-CoV-2/pathogenicity , Data Mining , Gene Frequency , Genetic Variation , Host Microbial Interactions , Humans , Mannose-Binding Lectin/genetics , Mannose-Binding Lectin/immunology , Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide , Risk Factors , Serine Endopeptidases/genetics , Serine Endopeptidases/immunology , Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor Superfamily, Member 7/genetics , Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor Superfamily, Member 7/immunologyABSTRACT
Lung diseases are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Complement activation may prevent a variety of respiratory infections, but on the other hand, could exacerbate tissue damage or contribute to adverse side effects. In this review, the associations of factors specific for complement activation via the lectin pathway (LP) with infections of the respiratory system, from birth to adulthood, are discussed. The most extensive data concern mannose-binding lectin (MBL) which together with other collectins (collectin-10, collectin-11) and the ficolins (ficolin-1, ficolin-2, ficolin-3) belong to pattern-recognition molecules (PRM) specific for the LP. Those PRM form complexes with MBL-associated serine proteases (MASP-1, MASP-2, MASP-3) and related non-enzymatic factors (MAp19, MAp44). Beside diseases affecting humanity for centuries like tuberculosis or neonatal pneumonia, some recently published data concerning COVID-19 are summarized.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/immunology , Complement System Proteins/immunology , Mannose-Binding Lectin/immunology , Respiratory System/immunology , SARS-CoV-2/physiology , Animals , COVID-19/genetics , COVID-19/virology , Complement Activation , Complement Pathway, Mannose-Binding Lectin , Complement System Proteins/genetics , Humans , Mannose-Binding Lectin/genetics , Respiratory System/virology , SARS-CoV-2/genetics , SARS-CoV-2/immunologyABSTRACT
New coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is capable to infect humans and cause a novel disease COVID-19. Aiming to understand a host genetic component of COVID-19, we focused on variants in genes encoding proteases and genes involved in innate immunity that could be important for susceptibility and resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Analysis of sequence data of coding regions of FURIN, PLG, PRSS1, TMPRSS11a, MBL2 and OAS1 genes in 143 unrelated individuals from Serbian population identified 22 variants with potential functional effect. In silico analyses (PolyPhen-2, SIFT, MutPred2 and Swiss-Pdb Viewer) predicted that 10 variants could impact the structure and/or function of proteins. These protein-altering variants (p.Gly146Ser in FURIN; p.Arg261His and p.Ala494Val in PLG; p.Asn54Lys in PRSS1; p.Arg52Cys, p.Gly54Asp and p.Gly57Glu in MBL2; p.Arg47Gln, p.Ile99Val and p.Arg130His in OAS1) may have predictive value for inter-individual differences in the response to the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Next, we performed comparative population analysis for the same variants using extracted data from the 1000 Genomes project. Population genetic variability was assessed using delta MAF and Fst statistics. Our study pointed to 7 variants in PLG, TMPRSS11a, MBL2 and OAS1 genes with noticeable divergence in allelic frequencies between populations worldwide. Three of them, all in MBL2 gene, were predicted to be damaging, making them the most promising population-specific markers related to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Comparing allelic frequencies between Serbian and other populations, we found that the highest level of genetic divergence related to selected loci was observed with African, followed by East Asian, Central and South American and South Asian populations. When compared with European populations, the highest divergence was observed with Italian population. In conclusion, we identified 4 variants in genes encoding proteases (FURIN, PLG and PRSS1) and 6 in genes involved in the innate immunity (MBL2 and OAS1) that might be relevant for the host response to SARS-CoV-2 infection.