SARS-CoV-2 is a deadly virus that is causing the global pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Our immune system plays a critical role in preventing, clearing, and treating the virus, but aberrant immune responses can contribute to deleterious symptoms and mortality. Many aspects of immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 are being investigated, but little is known about immune responses to carbohydrates. Since the surface of the virus is heavily glycosylated, pre-existing antibodies to glycans could potentially recognize the virus and influence disease progression. Furthermore, antibody responses to carbohydrates could be induced, affecting disease severity and clinical outcome. In this study, we used a carbohydrate antigen microarray with over 800 individual components to profile serum anti-glycan antibodies in COVID-19 patients and healthy control subjects. In COVID-19 patients, we observed abnormally high IgG and IgM antibodies to numerous self-glycans, including gangliosides, N-linked glycans, LacNAc-containing glycans, blood group H, and sialyl Lewis X. Some of these anti-glycan antibodies are known to play roles in autoimmune diseases and neurological disorders, which may help explain some of the unusual and prolonged symptoms observed in COVID-19 patients. The detection of antibodies to self-glycans has important implications for using convalescent serum to treat patients, developing safe and effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, and understanding the risks of infection. In addition, this study provides new insight into the immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and illustrates the importance of including host and viral carbohydrate antigens when studying immune responses to viruses.

中文翻译：

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SARS-CoV-2感染患者自身糖异常抗体

SARS-CoV-2是致命病毒，正在引起2019年全球大流行性冠状病毒病（COVID-19）。我们的免疫系统在预防，清除和治疗病毒方面起着至关重要的作用，但是异常的免疫反应会导致有害的症状和死亡。目前正在研究对SARS-CoV-2免疫应答的许多方面，但对碳水化合物的免疫应答知之甚少。由于病毒表面被高度糖基化，因此预先存在的聚糖抗体可能会识别该病毒并影响疾病进展。此外，可以诱导对碳水化合物的抗体反应，从而影响疾病的严重程度和临床结果。在这个研究中，我们使用了具有800多种单独成分的碳水化合物抗原微阵列来分析COVID-19患者和健康对照受试者的血清抗聚糖抗体。在COVID-19患者中，我们观察到了针对众多自糖的异常高的IgG和IgM抗体，这些自糖包括神经节苷脂，N-连接的聚糖，含LacNAc的聚糖，血型H和唾液酸化的LewisX。已知在自身免疫性疾病和神经系统疾病中起作用，这可能有助于解释在COVID-19患者中观察到的一些异常和长期症状。对自身聚糖抗体的检测对于使用恢复期血清治疗患者，开发安全有效的SARS-CoV-2疫苗以及了解感染风险具有重要意义。此外，