Translational research : the journal of laboratory and clinical medicine
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Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is characterized by multiple extra-hepatic manifestations. Innate immune dysfunction and hemolysis are symptoms which might be associated with each other. We investigated the impact of direct acting antivirals on neutrophil function and its connection to hemolysis. ⋯ Neutrophil dysfunction could be transferred to healthy cells by incubation with patients' serum fractions (>30 kDa) ex vivo. Neutrophil dysfunction and hemolysis represent extrahepatic manifestations of chronic hepatitis C virus infection and simultaneously improve during direct acting antiviral therapy independently of therapy-related liver function recovery. Therefore, large-scale treatment would not only drive viral eradication but also improve patients' immune system and may reduce susceptibility to infections.
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COVID-19 patients elicit strong responses to the nucleocapsid (N) protein of SARS-CoV-2 but binding antibodies are also detected in prepandemic individuals, indicating potential crossreactivity with common cold human coronaviruses (HCoV) and questioning its utility in seroprevalence studies. We investigated the immunogenicity of the full-length and shorter fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 N protein, and the crossreactivity of antibodies with HCoV. We identified a C-terminus region in SARS-CoV2 N of minimal sequence homology with HCoV that was more specific for SARS-CoV-2 and highly immunogenic. ⋯ Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 N were higher in patients with more severe and longer duration of symptoms and in females. IgGs remained stable for at least 3 months, while IgAs and IgMs declined faster. In conclusion, N protein is a primary target of SARS-CoV-2-specific and HCoV crossreactive antibodies, both of which may affect the acquisition of immunity to COVID-19.