COVID-19, Epstein-Barr virus reactivation and autoimmunity: Casual or causal liaisons?

IF 4.5 2区医学 Q2 IMMUNOLOGY

Journal of Microbiology Immunology and Infection Pub Date : 2025-03-27 DOI:10.1016/j.jmii.2025.03.014

Maria Cristina Tarasco, Nicola Iacomino, Renato Mantegazza, Paola Cavalcante

{"title":"COVID-19, Epstein-Barr virus reactivation and autoimmunity: Casual or causal liaisons?","authors":"Maria Cristina Tarasco, Nicola Iacomino, Renato Mantegazza, Paola Cavalcante","doi":"10.1016/j.jmii.2025.03.014","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, has been associated with a substantial risk of autoimmune disease development or exacerbation. The postulated pathophysiological mechanisms linking COVID-19 with autoimmunity include reactivation of latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), whose dysregulated infection in the host can trigger or promote an autoimmune response. This review summarizes recent studies highlighting a potential immunopathogenetic link between SARS-CoV-2 infection and EBV reactivation, which could underlie autoimmunity onset or worsening, as well as immune-related long COVID manifestations in COVID-19 patients. We offer our perspective on the direction that research should take to disentangle the nature (whether causal or casual) of the \"COVID-19-EBV-autoimmunity\" liaisons. Further advances in this research area may be crucial for designing strategies to prevent or treat EBV reactivation-related autoimmune conditions in COVID-19 patients, or patients with inflammatory co-infectious diseases, at the same time promising to improve our knowledge on the viral contribution to autoimmune phenomena.</p>","PeriodicalId":56117,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology Immunology and Infection","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Microbiology Immunology and Infection","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmii.2025.03.014","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"IMMUNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, has been associated with a substantial risk of autoimmune disease development or exacerbation. The postulated pathophysiological mechanisms linking COVID-19 with autoimmunity include reactivation of latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), whose dysregulated infection in the host can trigger or promote an autoimmune response. This review summarizes recent studies highlighting a potential immunopathogenetic link between SARS-CoV-2 infection and EBV reactivation, which could underlie autoimmunity onset or worsening, as well as immune-related long COVID manifestations in COVID-19 patients. We offer our perspective on the direction that research should take to disentangle the nature (whether causal or casual) of the "COVID-19-EBV-autoimmunity" liaisons. Further advances in this research area may be crucial for designing strategies to prevent or treat EBV reactivation-related autoimmune conditions in COVID-19 patients, or patients with inflammatory co-infectious diseases, at the same time promising to improve our knowledge on the viral contribution to autoimmune phenomena.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Microbiology Immunology and Infection IMMUNOLOGY-INFECTIOUS DISEASES

CiteScore

15.90

自引率

5.40%

发文量

159

审稿时长

67 days

期刊介绍： Journal of Microbiology Immunology and Infection is an open access journal, committed to disseminating information on the latest trends and advances in microbiology, immunology, infectious diseases and parasitology. Article types considered include perspectives, review articles, original articles, brief reports and correspondence. With the aim of promoting effective and accurate scientific information, an expert panel of referees constitutes the backbone of the peer-review process in evaluating the quality and content of manuscripts submitted for publication.