SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and gender-related haematological features in asymptomatic blood donors
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Abstract
Background and objectives
COVID-19 can either cause death or go unnoticed but antibodies will remain protecting us of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection for an uncertain time and to an uncertain extent. Our aim was to describe seroprevalence evolution from summer 2019 to autumn 2020 in Spain and to describe its relationship with age, blood group and haematological parameters.
Materials and methods
Sera and plasma from historical donation archives excluding convalescent were randomized and a total of 12,313 donations tested by a Chemiluminiscent analysis for anti SARS-CoV-2 N protein total immunoglobulins. Blood donors were 60.9% males, average age 46+/-13. Sex, age, blood group, blood cell counts and percentages and immunoglobulin concentrations were extracted from electronic recordings.
Results
A seroprevalence of 6.7% in blood donors was found by the end of the first wave. No differences by sex, age or blood group were found regarding antibodies. Leukocyte count (p=0.026), haematocrit (p<0.001) and haemoglobin (p<0.001) were lower in positive donations than in negative ones. Sex differences were present in neutrophils, leukocytes, haemoglobin and haematocrit as related to SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
Conclusions
Seroprevalence due to asymptomatic cases would resemble that of global population. Sex and age would not affect COVID-19 susceptibility but its severity. Gender differences related to COVID-19 in leukocytes, haemoglobin and haematocrit would be present in asymptomatic individuals. Further studies are needed to confirm these gender differences as they can help better understand the immune response to COVID-19, its pathogenesis and prognosis.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.28.21256242: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics IRB: This study was approved, with the Valladolid Health Area Drug Research Ethics Committee acting as the main committee, in a meeting held on June 11, 2020 with the reference number “BIO-2020-93”. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization Participants: The study population comprised randomised samples from blood, plasma (excluding convalescent) and platelet donations from July 2019 to October 2020. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Cell Line Authentication Authentication: A 100% concordance was yielded by these validation assays. Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources Target antigen of the immunoassay is a recombinant nucleocapsid (N) protein. Elecsys® … SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.28.21256242: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics IRB: This study was approved, with the Valladolid Health Area Drug Research Ethics Committee acting as the main committee, in a meeting held on June 11, 2020 with the reference number “BIO-2020-93”. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization Participants: The study population comprised randomised samples from blood, plasma (excluding convalescent) and platelet donations from July 2019 to October 2020. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Cell Line Authentication Authentication: A 100% concordance was yielded by these validation assays. Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources Target antigen of the immunoassay is a recombinant nucleocapsid (N) protein. Elecsys® Anti-SARS-CoV-2 detects antibodies correlating with virus-neutralizing ones and is therefore useful to help characterize the immune reaction to SARS-CoV-2 9,10. Anti-SARS-CoV-2suggested: NoneResults 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: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
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.
- Thank you for including a protocol registration statement.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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