Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) The role of viral superantigens in COVID-19 disease

Abstract

Copyright: © 2020 Bittmann S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Introduction Superantigens are viral or bacterial virus proteins that can specifically activate a large ratio of T cells. In contrast to classic peptide antigen recognition, superantigens do not require processing in small peptides, but act as fully or partially processed proteins. They can bind to class II molecules of the main histocompatibility complex and stimulate T cells that express certain beta chains of the T cell recipient V. The other polymorphic parts of the T cell receiver, which are important for classical antigen recognition, are not important for this interaction. When this strategy is used, much of the host’s immune system can be activated shortly after infection. The activated cells exhibit a variety of antigenic accuracy. The ability to stimulate polyclonal B (IgG) and T cell responses opens up the possibility of a role of superantigens in the induction of autoimmune diseases. Superantigens have been a great tool in the hands of immunologists to uncover some of the basic mechanisms of tolerance and immunity. Superantigens could play a major role in COVID-19 viral disease in children and is described as a new entity as MIS-C [1-7].