Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can cause serious illness in older adults and people with chronic underlying medical conditions; however, children and young people are often asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. We evaluated the presence of specific antibodies (Abs) response against Human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63) S protein epitopes (NL63-RBM1, NL63-RBM2_1, NL63-RBM2_2, NL63-RBM3, NL63-SPIKE, and NL63-DISC-like) and SARS-CoV-2 epitopes (COV2-SPIKE and COV2-SPIKE) in plasma samples of pre-pandemic, mid-pandemic, and COVID-19 cohorts by indirect ELISA. Moreover, a competitive assay was performed to check for cross reactivity response between COV2-SPIKE and NL63-RBM3 among patients with a definitive diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by a progressive joint damage due to largely unknown environmental factors acting in concert with risk alleles conferring genetic susceptibility. A major role has been attributed to viral infections that include past contacts with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and, more recently, to non-protein coding sequences of human endogenous retrovirus K (HERV-K) integrated in the human genome. Molecular mimicry between viral and self proteins is supposed to cause the loss of immune tolerance in predisposed hosts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF