Longevity of SARS-CoV-2 Antibody in Health Care Workers: 6-Months Follow Up

  1. Michael Brant-Zawadzki
  2. Deborah Fridman
  3. Philip A. Robinson
  4. Randy German
  5. Arell Shapiro
  6. Marcus Breit
  7. Stacy Wilton
  8. Elmira Burke
  9. Jason R. Bock
  10. Junko Hara

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Abstract

The prevalence and longevity of acquired immunity to coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID-19 ) in health care workers ( HCWs ) is of great interest, especially with the roll-out of vaccines for SARS-CoV-2. Determining such immunity may enhance knowledge about susceptibility of HCWs to COVID-19, frequency of vaccine administration, and degree of workplace risk, and may also support enactment of better workplace policies and procedures.

The present study reports on 6-months follow-up serosurveillance to determine the longevity of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in HCWs.

Sub-sample (n=35) of the original serosurveillance in HCWs (n = 3,458) with baseline, 8-week, and 6-month blood sampling were analyzed. Information on job duties, location, COVID-19 symptoms, polymerase chain reaction test history, travel since January 2020, and household contacts with COVID-19 was collected.

Of 35 subjects, 13 were seropositive at baseline and maintained positivity at 8-week follow-up, with 3 losing positivity at 6-month follow-up. Among 22 subjects who were seronegative at baseline and seropositive at 8-week follow-up, all but one maintained positivity at 6-month follow-up. There was no significant effect of all factors (e.g., age, gender, job duties) examined at the .05 level on seropositivity at 6-month follow-up. The observed antibody longevity was 7.0+/-0.6 months for seropositive subjects (n=13), and 4.5+/-0.8 months for those seronegative subjects (n=22), at baseline. The longest duration of seropositivity observed in this cohort was 7.9 months (236 days).

With reported COVID-19-related symptoms up to 4.7 months prior to baseline blood sampling, possibly longer antibody presence is suggested. Similarly, seropositivity at 6-month follow-up further suggests greater antibody longevity than observed in this study.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.08.25.21262632: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    A blood sample (∼5ml) was collected at enrollment and 8-week follow-up, from each subject for serum analysis for IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 using the VITROS Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG Reagent Pack and Calibrator on the VITROS® XT 7600 instrument by Ortho Clinical Diagnostics approved for the FDA emergency use authorization. 6-Month Blood Sampling: Additional blood samples were collected at 6-month follow-up from those who had positive antibody results at the initial and 8-week follow-up, or at 8-week follow-up only, with a total of 96 subjects eligible.
    IgG
    suggested: (LSBio (LifeSpan Cat# Q9Y6M5, RRID:AB_1652679)
    Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG
    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: 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.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    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.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.08.25.21262632v1 on medRxiv