CD68-Negative Histiocytoses with Cardiac Involvement, Associated with COVID-19

Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Sep 19;25(18):10086. doi: 10.3390/ijms251810086.

Abstract

Histiocytoses are rare diseases characterised by infiltration of affected organs by myeloid cells with a monocyte or dendritic cell phenotype. Symptoms can range from self-resolving localised forms to multisystemic lesions requiring specific treatment. To demonstrate extremely rare cases of CD68-negative cardiac histiocytosis with expression of SARS-CoV-2 antigen in infiltrate cells. We demonstrated a case of Erdheim-Chester disease in a 67-year-old man with pericardial involvement and positive dynamics with vemurafenib treatment, an autopsy case of xanthogranulomatous myopericarditis in a 63-year-old man, surgical material of xanthogranulomatous constrictive pericarditis in a 57-year-old man, and an autopsy case of xanthogranulomatosis in a 1-month-old girl. In all cases, xanthogranuloma cells expressed CD163, many of them spike protein SARS-CoV-2, while CD68 expression was detected only in single cells. In this article, we demonstrated four cases of extremely rare CD68-negative cardiac xanthogranulomatosis in three adults and one child with expression of the spike protein SARS-CoV-2 in M2 macrophages. This potential indirect association between COVID-19 and the development of histiocytosis in these patients warrants further investigation. To substantiate this hypothesis, more extensive research is needed.

Keywords: CD68; COVID-19; Erdheim–Chester disease; myocarditis; pericarditis; xanthogranulomatosis.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Antigens, CD* / metabolism
  • Antigens, Differentiation, Myelomonocytic* / metabolism
  • CD163 Antigen
  • CD68 Molecule
  • COVID-19* / complications
  • COVID-19* / metabolism
  • COVID-19* / pathology
  • COVID-19* / virology
  • Erdheim-Chester Disease / diagnosis
  • Erdheim-Chester Disease / metabolism
  • Erdheim-Chester Disease / pathology
  • Female
  • Histiocytosis* / metabolism
  • Histiocytosis* / pathology
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Receptors, Cell Surface
  • SARS-CoV-2* / metabolism
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus / metabolism

Substances

  • Antigens, Differentiation, Myelomonocytic
  • Antigens, CD
  • CD68 antigen, human
  • spike protein, SARS-CoV-2
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus
  • CD163 Antigen
  • CD68 Molecule
  • Receptors, Cell Surface