Kinetics and correlates of the neutralizing antibody response to SARS-CoV-2

Vanshylla, K.; Di Cristianziano, V.; Kleipass, F.; Dewald, F.; Schommers, P.; Gieselmann, L.; Gruell, H.; Schlotz, M.; Ercanoglu, M. S.; Stumpf, R.; Mayer, P.; Heger, E.; Johannis, W.; Horn, C.; Suarez, I.; Jung, N.; Salomon, S.; Eberhardt, K.; Faetkenheuer, G.; Pfeifer, N.; Eggeling, R.; Augustin, M.; Lehmann, C.; Klein, F.

doi:10.1101/2021.01.26.428207

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.01.26.428207

Kinetics and correlates of the neutralizing antibody response to SARS-CoV-2

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Abstract

A detailed understanding of antibody-based SARS-CoV-2 immunity has critical implications for overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and for informing on vaccination strategies. In this study, we evaluated the dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 antibody response in a cohort of 963 recovered individuals over a period of 10 months. Investigating a total of 2,146 samples, we detected an initial SARS-CoV-2 antibody response in 94.4% of individuals, with 82% and 79% exhibiting serum and IgG neutralization, respectively. Approximately 3% of recovered patients demonstrated exceptional SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing activity, defining them as elite neutralizers. These individuals also possessed effective cross-neutralizing IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-1 without any known prior exposure to this virus. By applying multivariate statistical modeling, we found that sero-reactivity, age, time since disease onset, and fever are key factors predicting SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing activity in mild courses of COVID-19. Investigating longevity of the antibody response, we detected loss of anti-spike reactivity in 13% of individuals 10 months after infection. Moreover, neutralizing activity had an initial half-life of 6.7 weeks in serum versus 30.8 weeks in purified IgG samples indicating the presence of a more stable and long-term memory IgG B cell repertoire in the majority of individuals recovered from COVID-19. Our results demonstrate a broad spectrum of the initial SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody response depending on clinical characteristics, with antibodies being maintained in the majority of individuals for the first 10 months after mild course of COVID-19.

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Vanshylla, K., Di Cristianziano, V., Kleipass, F., Dewald, F., Schommers, P., Gieselmann, L., Gruell, H., Schlotz, M., Ercanoglu, M. S., Stumpf, R., Mayer, P., Heger, E., Johannis, W., Horn, C., Suarez, I., Jung, N., Salomon, S., Eberhardt, K., Faetkenheuer, G., Pfeifer, N., Eggeling, R., Augustin, M., Lehmann, C., Klein, F.. 2021-01-26. Kinetics and correlates of the neutralizing antibody response to SARS-CoV-2. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.26.428207

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