ArticleFrontiers in immunology2021
Lectin Pathway Mediates Complement Activation by SARS-CoV-2 Proteins.
Article in Frontiers in immunology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 112 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
112 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 172 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mucosal immune response in biology, disease prevention and treatment.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of the investigational complement C5 inhibitor zilucoplan in patients hospitalized with COVID-19: an open-label randomized controlled trial.Respiratory research · 2022Trial
- Cytokine-Driven Hyperinflammation in Long COVID: Mechanisms, Biomarkers, Complement Dysregulation, and Emerging Immunotherapies-A Narrative Review.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Review
- Activation of the Lectin Pathway Drives Persistent Complement Dysregulation in Long COVID.Immunology · 2026Article
- An Iron-Complement Network Model of Thromboinflammation and Humoral Immune Remodeling in Severe COVID-19.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Article
- Collectin-11, a complement pattern recognition molecule, mediates pulmonary SARS-CoV-2 neutralization and protection.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein-specific monoclonal antibodies as tools for studying its antigenic structure and interaction with host cells.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein-Induced Endothelial Dysfunction.Cells · 2026Review
- Common and rare variants in complement genes as biomarkers of COVID-19 infection and severity. A lesson to learn for emerging pathogens.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- SARS-CoV-2 enhances complement-mediated endothelial injury via the suppression of membrane complement regulatory proteins.Emerging microbes & infections · 2025Article
- Exploring the biological mechanisms of severe COVID-19 in the elderly: Insights from an aged mouse model.Virulence · 2025Article
- Liver as a key organ for systemic antimicrobial defense.Hepatology communications · 2025Review
- Glycan recognition by collectin-11 drives SARS-CoV-2 infectivity and membrane injury of respiratory epithelial cells.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Association between MASP2 gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to Covid-19 in Iranian patients: a case-control study.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Unique Features and Collateral Immune Effects of mRNA-LNP COVID-19 Vaccines: Plausible Mechanisms of Adverse Events and Complications.Pharmaceutics · 2025Review
- Impact of complement system proteins on the clinical progression of hospitalized patients with COVID-19.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Engineered Dual-Function Antibody-Like Proteins to Combat SARS-CoV-2-Induced Immune Dysregulation and Inflammation.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Observational
- Do Long COVID and COVID Vaccine Side Effects Share Pathophysiological Picture and Biochemical Pathways?International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
52 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Early and persistent activation of complement is considered to play a key role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. Complement activation products orchestrate a proinflammatory environment that might be critical for the induction and maintenance of a severe inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2 by recruiting cells of the cellular immune system to the sites of infection and shifting their state of activation towards an inflammatory phenotype. It precedes pathophysiological milestone events like the cytokine storm, progressive endothelial injury triggering microangiopathy, and further complement activation, and causes an acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). To date, the application of antiviral drugs and corticosteroids have shown efficacy in the early stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but failed to ameliorate disease severity in patients who progressed to severe COVID-19 pathology. This report demonstrates that lectin pathway (LP) recognition molecules of the complement system, such as MBL, FCN-2 and CL-11, bind to SARS-CoV-2 S- and N-proteins, with subsequent activation of LP-mediated C3b and C4b deposition. In addition, our results confirm and underline that the N-protein of SARS-CoV-2 binds directly to the LP- effector enzyme MASP-2 and activates complement. Inhibition of the LP using an inhibitory monoclonal antibody against MASP-2 effectively blocks LP-mediated complement activation. FACS analyses using transfected HEK-293 cells expressing SARS-CoV-2 S protein confirm a robust LP-dependent C3b deposition on the cell surface which is inhibited by the MASP-2 inhibitory antibody. In light of our present results, and the encouraging performance of our clinical candidate MASP-2 inhibitor Narsoplimab in recently published clinical trials, we suggest that the targeting of MASP-2 provides an unsurpassed window of therapeutic efficacy for the treatment of severe COVID-19.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.