Using bioinformatic protein sequence similarity to investigate if SARS CoV-2 infection could cause an ocular autoimmune inflammatory reactions?

Karagöz, Işıl Kutlutürk; Munk, Marion R.; Kaya, Mücahit; Rückert, Ralph I.; Yıldırım, Mustafa; Karabaş, Levent

doi:10.1016/j.exer.2020.108433

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Among the proposed mechanisms contributing to autoimmune responses during COVID-19, molecular mimicry has recently taken the front stage. A number of studies have found homologies between SARS-CoV-2 amino acid and human protein amino acid residues [105,106], and more specifically, between the spike protein and human proteins [107][108][109]. Additionally, some of these cross-reactive regions were immunogenic epitopes, meaning that they can bind to MHC I or II molecules on antigen-presenting cells, thereby activating autoreactive B and T cells that elicit an autoimmune response.…”

Section: The Sars-cov-2 Spike Protein Triggers Autoimmune Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal COVID-19 Vaccination and Its Potential Impact on Fetal and Neonatal Development

et al. 2021

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Vaccines have been developed at “warp speed” to combat the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Although they are considered the best approach for preventing mortality, when assessing the safety of these vaccines, pregnant women have not been included in clinical trials. Thus, vaccine safety for this demographic, as well as for the developing fetus and neonate, remains to be determined. A global effort has been underway to encourage pregnant women to get vaccinated despite the uncertain risk posed to them and their offspring. Given this, post-hoc data collection, potentially for years, will be required to determine the outcomes of COVID-19 and vaccination on the next generation. Most COVID-19 vaccine reactions include injection site erythema, pain, swelling, fatigue, headache, fever and lymphadenopathy, which may be sufficient to affect fetal/neonatal development. In this review, we have explored components of the first-generation viral vector and mRNA COVID-19 vaccines that are believed to contribute to adverse reactions and which may negatively impact fetal and neonatal development. We have followed this with a discussion of the potential for using an ovine model to explore the long-term outcomes of COVID-19 vaccination during the prenatal and neonatal periods.

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Section: The Sars-cov-2 Spike Protein Triggers Autoimmune Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal COVID-19 Vaccination and Its Potential Impact on Fetal and Neonatal Development

et al. 2021

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“…These findings indicate a global involvement of the choroid rather than a selective involvement of choroidal stroma or blood vessels. SARS-CoV-2 shares certain antigenic epitopes with the retinal pigment epithelium which is in direct contact with the choroid and might induce local inflammatory damage to the choroid in these patients [14] . COVID-19 infection induces a very strong systemic inflammation that can cause severe cytokine storms and even death in some of the patients [29] .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Certain antigens of SARS-CoV-2 virus has also molecular similarities with certain retinal structures [14] and can cause thrombotic complications in ocular blood vessels [15] . Therefore, we suspected that there might be a subclinical choroidal involvement in these patients and wanted to study long-term changes in choroidal thickness and structure following COVID-19 infection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term follow-up of choroidal changes following COVID-19 infection: analysis of choroidal thickness and choroidal vascularity index

Hepokur¹,

Gunes

Durmus

et al. 2023

Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology

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Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate subclinical choroidal involvement in patients with systemic COVID-19 infection and evaluate its long-term course. Materials and Methods This prospective, longitudinal study included 32 eyes of 16 COVID-19 patients and 34 eyes of 17 age-matched healthy control subjects. All of the participants had a detailed ophthalmological including visual acuity assessment, slit lamp examination and indirect ophthalmoscopy. Enhanced depth optical coherence tomography imaging of the posterior pole and peripapillary region was performed at the early (days 15-40) and late (9 th month) postinfectious periods. Choroidal vascularity index (CVI) was calculated using Image-J software. Results None of the patients had any examination finding associated with the ocular involvement of COVID-19. Subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) significantly decreased at the early postinfectious period compared to healthy controls (p=0.045). SFCT significantly increased at the late postinfectious period compared to early (p=0.002) and the difference between the patients and controls became statistically insignificant (p=0.362). There was a similar trend for the peripapillary choroidal thickness measurements. CVI remained unchanged (p=0.721) despite the significant decrease in SFCT and total choroidal area (TCA, p=0.042), indicating that this decrease occurred both in choroidal stroma and blood vessels. CVI remained unchanged in the late postinfectious period (p=0.575) compared to the early period, indicating that recovery occurred in the entire choroidal tissue. Conclusion This study demonstrated that choroidal thickness was reduced in all measured areas and this decrease affected all choroidal layers. This choroidopathy was reversible and recovered at the 9 th postinfectious month.

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“…Severe inflammation and ACE2 receptor involvement causes endothelial damage that reduces the blood flow. [ 23 , 24 ] Increased SFCT is most probably a compensatory vascular response to prevent retinochoroidal ischemia. Though the inner blood–retina barrier (BRB) provides immunity to neural retina, the widespread cytokine storm and inflammation can disrupt the endothelial barrier to cause an associated increased choroidal permeability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical coherence tomography-based assessment of macular vessel density, retinal layer metrics and sub-foveal choroidal thickness in COVID-19 recovered patients

Karkhur

Chauhan

Soni

et al. 2023

Indian Journal of Ophthalmology

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Purpose: The primary objective of the study was to assess the macular retinal vessel density, subfoveal choroidal thickness, and retinal layer metrics by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), enhanced-depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT), and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), respectively, in recovered COVID-19 patients and its comparison with the same in control subjects. The secondary objective was to evaluate differences in OCTA parameters in relation with the severity of COVID-19 disease and administration of corticosteroids. Methods: A case–control study was performed that included patients who had recovered from COVID-19 and age-matched healthy controls. Complete ocular examination including OCTA, SD-OCT, and EDI-OCT were performed three months following the diagnosis. Results: Three hundred sixty eyes of 180 subjects were enrolled between the two groups. A decreased mean foveal avascular zone area in both superficial capillary plexuses ( P = 0.03) and deep capillary plexuses ( P < 0.01), reduced average ganglion cell layer-inner plexiform layer thickness ( P = 0.04), and increased subfoveal choroidal thickness ( P < 0.001) were observed among cases in comparison to the control group. A significant correlation was found between sectoral macular vessel density in relation to disease severity and a decrease in vessel density with greater severity of the disease. Conclusion: OCTA detected retinal microvascular alterations following SARS-CoV-2 infection in subjects with the absence of any clinical ocular manifestation or systemic thrombotic events. These parameters could be used to help identify patients with a higher incidence of systemic thromboembolism on longer follow-ups and identify the impact of corticosteroids on retinal architecture.

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Using bioinformatic protein sequence similarity to investigate if SARS CoV-2 infection could cause an ocular autoimmune inflammatory reactions?

Cited by 11 publications

References 72 publications

Maternal COVID-19 Vaccination and Its Potential Impact on Fetal and Neonatal Development

Maternal COVID-19 Vaccination and Its Potential Impact on Fetal and Neonatal Development

Long-term follow-up of choroidal changes following COVID-19 infection: analysis of choroidal thickness and choroidal vascularity index

Optical coherence tomography-based assessment of macular vessel density, retinal layer metrics and sub-foveal choroidal thickness in COVID-19 recovered patients

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