Autoantibodies in COVID-19 survivors with post-COVID symptoms: a systematic review.

The long-lasting persistence of autoantibodies stands as one of the hypotheses explaining the multisystemic manifestations seen in individuals with post-COVID-19 condition. The current review offers restricted insights into the persistence of autoantibodies in plasma/serum in people with post-COVID symptoms. PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases, as well as on medRxiv and bioRxiv preprint servers were searched up to January 5 From 162 identified records, five articles met all inclusion criteria; four studies included infected controls with no post-COVID symptoms whereas all five studies included non-infected controls (410 COVID-19 survivors with post-COVID symptoms, 223 COVID-19 survivors with no post-COVID symptoms as controls and 266 non-infected healthy controls). Four studies concluded that the presence of autoantibodies had a potential (but small) role in post-COVID-19 condition whereas one study concluded that autoantibodies were not associated. Quality assessment showed all studies had high methodological quality. Although evidence suggests that persistent autoantibodies can be associated with post-COVID symptoms, the clinical relevance of their presence seems modest at this stage. Current results highlight further research to clarify the role of autoantibodies in the development of post-COVID symptoms, guiding the development of tailored diagnostic and treatment approaches to enhance patient outcomes. https://osf.io/vqz28.

Copyright © 2024 Notarte, Carandang, Velasco, Pastrana, Ver, Manalo, Ng, Grecia, Lippi, Henry and Fernández-de-las-Peñas.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.