High seroprevalence but short‐lived immune response to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in Paris
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Abstract
Although the COVID‐19 pandemic peaked in March/April 2020 in France, the prevalence of infection is barely known. Using high‐throughput methods, we assessed herein the serological response against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) of 1847 participants working in three sites of an institution in Paris conurbation.
In May–July 2020, 11% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 9.7–12.6) of serums were positive for IgG against the SARS‐CoV‐2 N and S proteins, and 9.5% (95% CI: 8.2–11.0) were neutralizer in pseudo‐typed virus assays. The prevalence of seroconversion was 11.6% (95% CI: 10.2–13.2) when considering positivity in at least one assay. In 5% of RT‐qPCR positive individuals, no systemic IgGs were detected. Among immune individuals, 21% had been asymptomatic. Anosmia (loss of smell) and ageusia (loss of taste) occurred in 52% of the IgG‐positive individuals and in 3% of the negative ones. In contrast, 30% of the anosmia–ageusia cases were seronegative, suggesting that the true prevalence of infection may have reached 16.6%. In sera obtained 4–8 weeks after the first sampling, anti‐N and anti‐S IgG titers and neutralization activity in pseudo‐virus assay declined by 31%, 17%, and 53%, resulting thus in half‐life of 35, 87, and 28 days, respectively.
The population studied is representative of active workers in Paris. The short lifespan of the serological systemic responses suggests an underestimation of the true prevalence of infection.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.25.20219030: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Consent: Following informed consent, 18 years of age or older volunteer participant outside of any SARS-CoV-2 acute infectious episode in the last 7 days, working at one of the three Institut Curie locations (Paris, Orsay or Saint Cloud) completed a web-based questionnaire (Ennov Clinical) detailed in Supplementary Appendix 1 and 2. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from L…SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.25.20219030: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Consent: Following informed consent, 18 years of age or older volunteer participant outside of any SARS-CoV-2 acute infectious episode in the last 7 days, working at one of the three Institut Curie locations (Paris, Orsay or Saint Cloud) completed a web-based questionnaire (Ennov Clinical) detailed in Supplementary Appendix 1 and 2. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:There are some limitations of our study. 1) High throughput methods for assessing IgM or IgA responses were not ready at the time of the study. Assessing these isotypes may be relevant since a commercial lateral flow assay detected anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgM in 7 out of 48 individuals featuring anosmia/ageusia but devoid of IgG response. 2) For regulatory and logistic reasons, the blood sampling started 4-6 weeks after the epidemic peak and were performed over a 2.5-month period. The interval between the infection and the blood draw varied between 2 to 18 weeks. We may thus have missed the antibody response peak in some cases and, again, underestimated the true prevalence of the infection. 3) For logistic reasons, the blood samplings from research center staff were delayed by an average 2 weeks, possibly leading to a slight underestimation of the true prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the research center. 4) The use of a web-based auto-questionnaire leaves some space for inaccurate or selective memories as well as input errors and missing values. Indeed, despite the high response rate, the symptom onset date was missing in 18% of the cases (187/1007). Symptoms were declared by 79% of the immunized individuals but also by 51% of the individuals without antibodies, suggesting either a still higher proportion of infections without detectable systemic antibodies or the limit of self-reported symptom questionnaire. 5) Although more than half of the employees participated to the study...
Results from TrialIdentifier: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:
Identifier Status Title NCT04369066 Recruiting COVID-19 Study of the Serological Response Against the Sever… Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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