Longitudinal monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody titers and its impact on employee personal wellness decisions

  1. Rianna Vandergaast
  2. Timothy Carey
  3. Lukkana Suksanpaisan
  4. Chase Lathrum
  5. Riya Narjari
  6. Michelle Haselton
  7. Luke Schnebeck
  8. Aroshi Wijesekara
  9. Andrew Duncan
  10. Luke Russell
  11. Shruthi Naik
  12. Kah-Whye Peng
  13. Patrycja Lech
  14. Stephen J. Russell

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Abstract

Virus neutralizing antibody (vnAb) titers are the strongest laboratory correlate of protection from SARS-CoV-2. Providing individuals with real-time measures of their vnAb titers is predicted to improve their ability to make personal wellness decisions. Yet, widespread commercial testing of SARS-CoV-2 vnAbs does not currently occur. Here, we examined whether knowing their vnAb titer impacted wellness decision-making among individuals. To this end, starting on January 1, 2021, we offered all employees from two companies free IMMUNO-COV™ testing and conducted a survey to assess their behaviors and decisions regarding booster vaccination. IMMUNO-COV is a clinically validated, surrogate virus assay that quantitates serum titers of SARS-CoV-2 vnAbs. To help participants gauge their level of protection based on their vnAb titer, we calibrated IMMUNO-COV titers to the World Health Organization (WHO) International Standard (IU/mL), making them comparable to published reports of correlates of protection, and we fit historical IMMUNO-COV vnAb titer values into predictive models of immune protection from COVID-19. As expected, data for the 56 program participants showed variability in vnAb titers post vaccination, rates vnAb decay, and fold-increases in vnAb titers after booster vaccination. Based on the participant survey, the majority (66%) of participants indicated that knowing their vnAb titer impacted their social behaviors and/or their decision on the timing of a booster vaccination. Several participants indicated that knowing their vnAb titer contributed to their peace of mind regarding their high level of protection from COVID-19. Together, these data demonstrate that regular determination of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody titers can significantly impact decisions regarding social interactions and timing of booster vaccinations.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.03.01.22271202: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: Study Design and Population: The study protocol, informed consent forms to collect blood, and participant survey were reviewed and approved by Western Institutional Review Board.
    IRB: Study Design and Population: The study protocol, informed consent forms to collect blood, and participant survey were reviewed and approved by Western Institutional Review Board.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    The clinically validated test detects the presence of specific neutralizing antibodies capable of inhibiting a vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-based surrogate virus, VSV-SARS2-Fluc.
    VSV-SARS2-Fluc
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    Plasmid was sequence verified and used for infectious virus rescue on BHK-21 cells as previously described11.
    BHK-21
    suggested: None
    For vnAb assay, test serum samples at increasing dilutions were incubated with VSV-SARS2(Delta)-Fluc (800 pfu/100 µL) for 30 min at room temperature, before being overlaid onto monolayers of Vero-ACE2 cells plated 16-24 h before use.
    Vero-ACE2
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Data Analysis and Statistics: Data was graphed and analyzed using Prism v9.3.1 (GraphPad Prism, San Diego,
    Prism
    suggested: (PRISM, RRID:SCR_005375)
    GraphPad
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)

    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 10.1101/2022.03.01.22271202 on medRxiv