Of a wide range of measured clinical covariates, higher age and higher BMI showed trends of being associated with higher mortality and the administration of glucocorticoids trended to being associated with survival; however, none of these factors were of univariate significance given the sample size of the cohort (Bain et?al

Of a wide range of measured clinical covariates, higher age and higher BMI showed trends of being associated with higher mortality and the administration of glucocorticoids trended to being associated with survival; however, none of these factors were of univariate significance given the sample size of the cohort (Bain et?al., 2021; Cillo et al., 2021). Intriguingly, pre-pandemic healthy controls have cross-reactive Abs directed against nsp13, a protein conserved across coronaviruses. Consistent with these findings, a model built on Ab profiles for endemic coronavirus antigens also predicts COVID-19 outcome. Our results suggest the importance of studying Abs targeting non-canonical severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and endemic coronavirus antigens in COVID-19. Keywords: systems immunology, antibody profiling, COVID-19, non-canonical antigens, endemic coronaviruses, cross-reactivity, nsp13 Graphical abstract Open in a separate window Peddireddy et?al. perform deep molecular profiling of antibodies in severe COVID-19 patients and identify multivariate humoral signatures of outcome bifurcation involving canonical and non-canonical SARS-CoV-2, as well as endemic CoV antigenic specificities. Our p110D results suggest the importance of Abs targeting non-canonical SARS-CoV-2 antigens, as well as those directed against endemic coronaviruses in favorable outcomes of severe COVID-19. Introduction The WEHI539 continued spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains a significant threat globally, in spite of deployment of effective vaccines, due to newly emerging variants. A critical challenge is posed by the high symptomatic heterogeneity and unpredictable course of disease progression in COVID-19 (Rodebaugh et?al., 2021). Progression from asymptomatic infection or mild symptoms to severe disease has been broadly linked to advanced WEHI539 age and certain comorbidities (Ng et?al., 2021). However, for those with severe COVID-19 disease, there is still a lack of personalized predictors of the course of disease and its outcomes. Although significant effort has been dedicated to establishing the immunological underpinnings of COVID-19 (Carvalho et?al., 2021), the immunological drivers of mortality and survival outcomes within severe COVID-19 patients remain unclear. Recently, we identified dysregulated monocyte states as key predictors of outcomes within severe COVID-19 (Cillo et al., 2021). The humoral response directed against selected SARS-CoV-2 antigens, e.g., spike (S)?and nucleocapsid (N), or their sub-domains, e.g., receptor-binding domain (RBD) of S, which taken together we term as canonical antigens here, have been extensively studied (Atyeo et?al., 2020; Bartsch et?al., 2021; Zohar et?al., 2020). Relative to those with asymptomatic infection or with mild symptoms, antibody titers against canonical antigens are higher in patients with severe disease, leading to early concerns about antibodies contributing to disease pathology, potentially via mechanisms like antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) (Iwasaki and Yang, 2020; Lee et?al., 2020) or via the antibody-mediated activation of inflammatory pathways, especially since proinflammatory antibody Fc structures have been found to correlate with disease severity (Bye et?al., 2021; Chakraborty et al., 2020; Hoepel et?al., 2021; Larsen et?al., 2021). Vaccine studies, meanwhile, have shown that titers of vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibodies directed against the S antigen are a key correlate of protection WEHI539 (Khoury et?al., 2021; Sadarangani et?al., 2021). Recently, longitudinal profiling of antibodies against canonical antigens, after natural infection, has revealed distinct temporal trajectories of immunoglobulin (Ig) subclasses and non-neutralizing functions of these antibodies that track with disease severity and outcome (Zohar et?al., 2020). However, it remains to be determined which of these features of antibodies (Abs) directed against canonical antigens are predictive of recovery from severe COVID-19 WEHI539 disease. Beyond the canonical antigens, the WEHI539 SARS-CoV-2 genome is predicted to encode up to 25 additional proteins (Gordon et?al., 2020), which we term here as non-canonical antigens. It has been observed that cellular and humoral immune responses directed against these non-canonical targets also arise.