Study suggests anti-PF4 antibodies may play a role in the severe multiorgan disease manifestations of COVID-19 PNASNews NIAIDNews JohnsHopkinsSPH antibody antibodies disease COVID19 coronavirus covid
By Neha MathurNov 7 2022Reviewed by Danielle Ellis, B.Sc. In a recent study published in PNAS, researchers investigated the association between the increased levels of anti-platelet factor 4 antibodies and the clinical complications of coronavirus disease 2019 .
About the study In the present study, researchers enrolled 100 patients admitted to the Johns Hopkins Hospital for moderate or severe COVID-19 between April 2020 and April 2021. They had a maximum World Health Organization disease severity score between four and ten during hospitalization. All these patients were unvaccinated for SARS-CoV-2 and heterogenous in age, ethnicity, gender, and comorbidities.
Study findings The prevalence and the levels of anti-PF4 antibodies in healthy blood donors were very low. On the contrary, the authors noted anti-PF4 antibodies in the serum of 95% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, with a mean optical density value of 0.871 ± 0.405 standard deviations . The OD value was higher than the potential threshold of clinical significance in 65% of patients, while it was >10 for 28.0% of patients.
The authors also did not observe a correlation between the prevalence of anti-PF4 antibodies and the patient's age, BMI, or pre-existing comorbidities. However, their prevalence was higher in male than female patients and African Americans or Hispanic ethnicities than in other ethnic groups.
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