TY  - JOUR
A1  - Scheiblauer, Heinrich
A1  - Nübling, Claudius Micha
A1  - Wolf, Timo
A1  - Khodamoradi, Yascha
A1  - Bellinghausen, Carla
A1  - Sonntagbauer, Michael
A1  - Esser-Nobis, Katharina
A1  - Filomena, Angela
A1  - Mahler, Vera
A1  - Maier, Thorsten Jürgen
A1  - Stephan, Christoph
T1  - Antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 for more than one year − kinetics and persistence of detection are predominantly determined by avidity progression and test design
T2  - Journal of clinical virology
N2  - Background: Antibody detection of SARS-CoV-2 requires an understanding of its variation, course, and duration.
Methods: Antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 was evaluated over 5–430 days on 828 samples across COVID-19 severity levels, for total antibody (TAb), IgG, IgA, IgM, neutralizing antibody (NAb), antibody avidity, and for receptor-binding-domain (RBD), spike (S), or nucleoprotein (N). Specificity was determined on 676 pre-pandemic samples.
Results: Sensitivity at 30–60 days post symptom onset (pso) for TAb-S/RBD, TAb-N, IgG-S, IgG-N, IgA-S, IgM-RBD, and NAb was 96.6%, 99.5%, 89.7%, 94.3%, 80.9%, 76.9% and 92.8%, respectively. Follow-up 430 days pso revealed: TAb-S/RBD increased slightly (100.0%); TAb-N decreased slightly (97.1%); IgG-S and IgA-S decreased moderately (81.4%, 65.7%); NAb remained positive (94.3%), slightly decreasing in activity after 300 days; there was correlation with IgG-S (Rs = 0.88) and IgA-S (Rs = 0.71); IgG-N decreased significantly from day 120 (15.7%); IgM-RBD dropped after 30–60 days (22.9%). High antibody avidity developed against S/RBD steadily with time in 94.3% of patients after 430 days. This correlated with persistent antibody detection depending on antibody-binding efficiency of the test design. Severe COVID-19 correlated with earlier and higher antibody response, mild COVID-19 was heterogeneous with a wide range of antibody reactivities. Specificity of the tests was ≥99%, except for IgA (96%).
Conclusion: Sensitivity of anti-SARS-CoV-2 assays was determined by test design, target antigen, antibody avidity, and COVID-19 severity. Sustained antibody detection was mainly determined by avidity progression for RBD and S. Testing by TAb and for S/RBD provided the highest sensitivity and longest detection duration of 14 months so far.
KW  - Persistence SARS-CoV-2 antibodies
KW  - Antibody avidity
KW  - Sensitivity
KW  - Specificity
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - neutralization
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/78304
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-783048
SN  - 1386-6532
VL  - 146.2022
IS  - 105052
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -