Epigenetic changes in the immune system in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the world in an unprecedented way, and while coronaviruses are not new to the scientific community, the disease keeps puzzling with its different manifestations and the enigmatic behavior of SARS-CoV-2.

Most studies on the immune response towards SARS-CoV-2 infection have followed a classical approach to map immunological events, including virus-specific antibody production and T cell responses.

However, epigenetic alterations may also be at play and to fill this gap, epigenomics should be added to systematic investigations of infectious diseases.

Here, we will investigate how the DNA methylation signature that we have identified in Covid-19 convalescents relates to Covid-19 disease severity, ageing, comorbidities and long-term effects of the disease.

To this end, we will analyse clinical material from several national Covid-19 biobanks containing carefully characterized clinical material.

We will also test our hypotheses that are derived from our discovery of specific, epigenetic down-modulation of virus-exploited genes in individuals with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Candidate mediators of this response include epigenome-editing proteins and RNAs which could be communicated to other cells via exosomes. We will use our established protocols within our exisiting long-term collaborations to address these questions. The project is unique in its kind in the endeavour to mechanistically characterize the epigenetic changes in Covid-19.