PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Claire T. Deakin
AU  - Georgina H. Cornish
AU  - Kevin W. Ng
AU  - Nikhil Faulkner
AU  - William Bolland
AU  - Veera Panova
AU  - Joshua Hope
AU  - Annachiara Rosa
AU  - Ruth Harvey
AU  - Saira Hussain
AU  - Christopher Earl
AU  - Bethany R. Jebson
AU  - Meredyth G.Ll. Wilkinson
AU  - Lucy R. Marshall
AU  - Kathryn O’Brien
AU  - Elizabeth C. Rosser
AU  - Anna Radziszewska
AU  - Hannah Peckham
AU  - Judith Heaney
AU  - Hannah Rickman
AU  - Stavroula Paraskevopoulou
AU  - Catherine F. Houlihan
AU  - Moira J. Spyer
AU  - Steve J. Gamblin
AU  - John McCauley
AU  - Eleni Nastouli
AU  - Peter Cherepanov
AU  - Coziana Ciurtin
AU  - Lucy R. Wedderburn
AU  - George Kassiotis
TI  - Favourable antibody responses to human coronaviruses in children and adolescents with autoimmune rheumatic diseases
AID  - 10.1101/2021.02.15.431291
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.02.15.431291
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/16/2021.02.15.431291.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/16/2021.02.15.431291.full
AB  - Differences in humoral immunity to coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), between children and adults remain unexplained and the impact of underlying immune dysfunction or suppression unknown. Here, we examined the antibody immune competence of children and adolescents with prevalent inflammatory rheumatic diseases, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) and juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE), against the seasonal human coronavirus (HCoV)-OC43 that frequently infects this age group. Despite immune dysfunction and immunosuppressive treatment, JIA, JDM and JSLE patients mounted comparable or stronger responses than healthier peers, dominated by IgG antibodies to HCoV-OC43 spike, and harboured IgG antibodies that cross-reacted with SARS-CoV-2 spike. In contrast, responses to HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 nucleoproteins exhibited delayed age-dependent class-switching and were not elevated in JIA, JDM and JSLE patients, arguing against increased exposure. Consequently, autoimmune rheumatic diseases and their treatment were associated with a favourable ratio of spike to nucleoprotein antibodies.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.