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I am getting a lot of emails and DMs from people wondering if our recent preprint raises concerns that a vaccine to SARS-CoV-2 would cause autoantibody responses like we see in COVID-19. I do not think that this is likely at all. (1/n) https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.10.20247205v3
First, given the wide spectrum of autoantibody responses we saw, theoretical molecular mimicry of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to dozens of highly diverse proteins is extremely unlikely. (2/n)
We do not provide a mechanism for autoantibody development in COVID-19, but this has been investigated in the setting of other viral infections as @BrodinPetter has pointed out elsewhere on twitter. Most/all of those mechanisms are likely at play here as well. (3/n)
Inflammation from an infection can activate pre-existing autoreactive and polyreactive B cells. Also, tissue damage (releasing antigens) and an inflammatory milieu can prime new responses. This is far more of an issue with infection and not at all likely with the vaccine. (4/n)
Finally, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been tested in tens of thousands of patients. They clearly are protective and they have not reported significant autoimmune side effects. (end)
