The antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection persists over at least 8 months in symptomatic patients

  1. Riccardo Levi
  2. Leonardo Ubaldi
  3. Chiara Pozzi
  4. Giovanni Angelotti
  5. Maria Teresa Sandri
  6. Elena Azzolini
  7. Michela Salvatici
  8. Victor Savevski
  9. Alberto Mantovani
  10. Maria Rescigno

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Abstract

Background

Persistence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 viral infection may depend on several factors and may be related to the severity of disease or to the different symptoms.

Methods

We evaluated the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in personnel from 9 healthcare facilities and an international medical school and its association with individuals’ characteristics and COVID-19 symptoms in an observational cohort study. We enrolled 4735 subjects (corresponding to 80% of all personnel) for three time points over a period of 8–10 months. For each participant, we determined the rate of antibody increase or decrease over time in relation to 93 features analyzed in univariate and multivariate analyses through a machine learning approach.

Results

Here we show in individuals positive for IgG (≥12 AU/mL) at the beginning of the study an increase [ p   =   0 . 0002 ] in antibody response in paucisymptomatic or symptomatic subjects, particularly with loss of taste or smell (anosmia/dysgeusia: OR 2.75, 95% CI 1.753 – 4.301), in a multivariate logistic regression analysis in the first three months. The antibody response persists for at least 8–10 months.

Conclusions

SARS-CoV-2 infection induces a long lasting antibody response that increases in the first months, particularly in individuals with anosmia/dysgeusia. This may be linked to the lingering of SARS-CoV-2 in the olfactory bulb.

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  1. Version published to 10.1038/s43856-021-00032-0
  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.02.05.21251219v2 on medRxiv
  3. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.02.05.21251219: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Study population: This observational study has been approved by the international review board of Istituto Clinico Humanitas for all participating institutes (clinicaltrial.gov NCT04387929).
    Consent: All participants signed an informed consent and filled a questionnaire before blood collection.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    The method is an indirect chemiluminescence immunoassay for the determination of anti-S1 and anti-S2 specific antibodies.
    anti-S1
    suggested: None
    anti-S2
    suggested: None

    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: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:

    IdentifierStatusTitle
    NCT04387929RecruitingDetection of Anti-COVID-19 Antibody Levels in an Hospital Po…

    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.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  4. Version published to 10.1101/2021.02.05.21251219v1 on medRxiv