Dr. Stephan Moll coauthored an article published on May 15, 2024 in the New England Journal of Medicine (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc240259 ) expanding on an earlier observation (Warkentin TE et al. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2307721 ) that adenoviral infection can be associated with a clinical picture of severe thrombosis and thrombocytopenia, triggered by antibody formation against platelet factor 4 (PF4), similar to but distinct from heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, and similar to adeno-virus vector COVID-vaccine associated VITT (vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia).
The current study entitled “Antibody Fingerprints Linking Adenoviral Anti-PF4 Disorders“ further characterized the anti-PF4 antibodies from four patients with an adenoviral infection associated anti-PF4 disorder and found highly similar amino acid fingerprints of their antibodies’ antigen-binding sites, leading to superimposable molecular structures of these anti-PF4 antibodies with anti-PF4 antibodies identified in patients with vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia (VITT).