Presence of Anti-MDA5 Antibody and Its Value for the Clinical Assessment in Patients With COVID-19: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Geng Wang, Qian Wang, Yeming Wang, Changzheng Liu, Linghang Wang, Hong Chen, Tao Jiao, Chaojun Hu, Xiaobo Lei, Li Guo, Lili Ren, Mengtao Li, Yan Zhao, Xiaofeng Zeng, Dingyu Zhang, Bin Cao, Jianwei Wang
Abstract
Background Striking similarities have been found between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) antibody (Ab)-related dermatomyositis, implying a shared autoinflammatory aberrance. Herein, we aim to investigate whether the anti-MDA5 Ab is present in COVID-19 and correlates with the severity and adverse outcome of COVID-19 patients. Methods and Findings We retrospectively recruited 274 adult inpatients with COVID-19 in this study, including 48, 164, and 62 cases of deaths, severe, and non-severe patients respectively. The anti-MDA5 Ab was determined by ELISA and verified by Western Blotting, which indicated that the positive rate of anti-MDA5 Ab in COVID-19 patients was 48.2% (132/274). The clinical and laboratory features, as well as outcomes between patients with positive and negative anti-MDA5 Ab were compared and we found that the anti-MDA5 Ab positive patients tended to represent severe disease (88.6% vs 66.9%, P <0.0001). We also demonstrated that the titer of anti-MDA5 Ab was significantly elevated in the non-survivals (5.95 ± 5.16 vs 8.22 ± 6.64, P =0.030) and the positive rate was also higher than that in the survivals (23.5% vs 12.0%, P =0.012). Regarding severe COVID-19 patients, we found that high titer of anti-MDA5 Ab (≥10.0 U/mL) was more prevalent in the non-survivals (31.2% vs 14.0%, P =0.006). Moreover, a dynamic analysis of anti-MDA5 Ab was conducted at different time-points of COVID-19, which revealed that early profiling of anti-MDA5 Ab could distinguish severe patients from those with non-severe ones. Conclusions Anti-MDA5 Ab was prevalent in the COVID-19 patients and high titer of this antibody is correlated with severe disease and unfavorable outcomes.