Autoantibodies to protein S may explain rare cases of coagulopathy following COVID-19 vaccination
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, cilt.14, sa.1, 2024 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 14 Sayı: 1
- Basım Tarihi: 2024
- Doi Numarası: 10.1038/s41598-024-75514-x
- Dergi Adı: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, BIOSIS, Chemical Abstracts Core, MEDLINE, Veterinary Science Database, Directory of Open Access Journals
- Hacettepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır
Özet
While Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines have proven to be both effective and generally safe, rare but severe adverse events following immunization (AEFIs) are described. Autoantibodies to platelet factor-4 are associated with catastrophic thrombotic AEFIs, but comprehensive investigations of other autoantibodies are lacking. We aimed to detect and describe autoantibodies targeting coagulation-related proteins in a population-wide cohort (SWEDEGENE) including AEFIs attributed to COVID-19 vaccines in Sweden. Subjects were recruited from December 2020 to October 2022 and were stratified based on diagnosis and COVID-19 exposure. Screening was carried out in two phases, with a multiplex bead-based assay in the first subset (until September 2021) and with targeted assays for the second (until October 2022). Positivity was defined based on absolute, relative, and biological/technical thresholds. Patients with coagulation-related AEFIs were older and the Vaxzevria vaccine was overrepresented in this group. Two cases had antiphospholipid antibodies but none had PF4 antibodies. We identified six positives for protein S autoantibodies. Protein S concentrations were negatively correlated with autoantibody response in patients with immunoreactivity and functional analysis revealed low protein S activity in three subjects. Our population-wide analysis reveals cases with autoantibodies against protein S which possibly underlie coagulopathic AEFIs.