RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Occurrence of COVID-19 symptoms during SARS-CoV-2 infection defines waning of humoral immunity
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.03.26.437123
DO 10.1101/2021.03.26.437123
A1 Jun Wu
A1 Bo-Yun Liang
A1 Yao-Hui Fang
A1 Hua Wang
A1 Xiao-Li Yang
A1 Shu Shen
A1 Liang-Kai Chen
A1 Su-Meng Li
A1 Si-Hong Lu
A1 Tian-Dan Xiang
A1 Jia Liu
A1 Vu Thuy Khanh Le-Trilling
A1 Meng-Ji Lu
A1 Dong-Liang Yang
A1 Fei Deng
A1 Ulf Dittmer
A1 Mirko Trilling
A1 Xin Zheng
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/03/26/2021.03.26.437123.abstract
AB Approximately half of the SARS-CoV-2 infections occur without apparent symptoms, raising questions regarding long-term humoral immunity in asymptomatic individuals. Plasma levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG) and M (IgM) against the viral spike or nucleoprotein were determined for 25,091 individuals enrolled in a surveillance program in Wuhan, China. We compared 405 asymptomatic individuals with 459 symptomatic COVID-19 patients. The well-defined duration of the SARS-CoV-2 endemic in Wuhan allowed a side-by-side comparison of antibody responses following symptomatic and asymptomatic infections without subsequent antigen re-exposure. IgM responses rapidly declined in both groups. However, both the prevalence and durability of IgG responses and neutralizing capacities correlated positively with symptoms. Regardless of sex, age, and body weight, asymptomatic individuals lost their SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG antibodies more often and rapidly than symptomatic patients. These findings have important implications for immunity and favour immunization programs including individuals after asymptomatic infections.One-Sentence Summary Prevalence and durability of SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG responses and neutralizing capacities correlate with COVID-19 symptoms.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.