This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review
“Abstract: Experimental findings for SARS-CoV-2 related to the glycan biochemistry of coronaviruses indicate that attachments from spike protein to glycoconjugates on the surfaces of red blood cells (RBCs), other blood cells and endothelial cells are key to the infectivity and morbidity of COVID-19. To provide further insight into these glycan attachments and their potential clinical relevance, the classic hemagglutination (HA) assay was applied using spike protein from the Wuhan, Alpha, Delta and Omicron B.1.1.529 lineages of SARS-CoV-2 mixed with human RBCs… The results of these experiments were, first, that spike protein from these four lineages of SARS-CoV-2 induced HA... IVM [ivermectin] blocked HA when added to RBCs prior to spike protein and reversed HA when added afterwards. These results validate and extend prior findings on the role of glycan bindings of viral spike protein in COVID-19. They furthermore suggest therapeutic options using competitive glycan-binding agents such as IVM and may help elucidate rare serious adverse effects (AEs) associated with COVID-19 mRNA vaccines which use spike protein as the generated antigen…
Discussion: … The HA-inducing activity of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which is especially potent for Omicron, raises questions as to potential risks for COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, which use spike protein as the generated antigen, even though serious adverse effects (AEs) linked to spike protein, such as myocarditis,64-66 are rare. Detectable levels of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and S1 in serum or plasma have been found to persist as long as 50 days following such vaccinations. The possibility that spike protein migrating into the blood stream could in rare cases prompt such HA-associated AEs is suggested, for example, by a study of 1,006 subjects experiencing AEs after receiving a Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccination which found a significant degree of RBC aggregation in the blood of 948 of those subjects. These risks may be increased for younger age groups, with 301 adolescents of 13-18 years of age who received two doses of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in one study having a 29.2% rate of cardiac AEs, ranging from tachycardia or palpitation to myopericarditis. The investigators considered chest pain, which occurred at a 4% incidence, ‘an alarming side effect,’ however myopericarditis cases were mostly mild and temporary.”
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