A Biomarker for Post-COVID Syndrome

The exact causes of PCS are unknown. It is thought that in addition to viral persistence, there may be autoantibodies, hypercoagulability, reactivation of other viruses such as EBV, and immunological dysfunction of pathophysiological relevance. Moreover, PCS affects many processes in the body, and is thought to be a multi-symptom complex disease, making it difficult to accurately diagnose PCS. An effective diagnostic test would be a crucial step to fight PCS.

Precise epitope mapping revealed specific antibody binding patterns in PCS patients compared to matched convalescent, naïve and vaccinated controls. Although, numerous variants of concern (VOC) occurred, epitope recognition is not impaired. The identified PCS-specific epitopes are expected to function individually or in combination as biomarkers for PCS and could thus be used as part of a test system for the molecular biological diagnosis of PCS. In addition, these PCS-specific peptides offer the potential to be used in a therapeutic approach.