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Epitope Coverage of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid IgA and IgG Antibodies Correlates with Protection against Re-Infection by New Variants in Subsequent Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect individuals across the globe, with some individuals experiencing more severe disease than others. The relatively high frequency of re-infections and breakthrough infections observed with SARS-CoV-2 highlights the importance of extending our understanding of...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mullins, Michelle O., Smith, Muneerah, Maboreke, Hazel, Nel, Andrew J. M., Ntusi, Ntobeko A. B., Burgers, Wendy A., Blackburn, Jonathan M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9967965/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36851798
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v15020584
Descripción
Sumario:The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect individuals across the globe, with some individuals experiencing more severe disease than others. The relatively high frequency of re-infections and breakthrough infections observed with SARS-CoV-2 highlights the importance of extending our understanding of immunity to COVID-19. Here, we aim to shed light on the importance of antibody titres and epitope utilization in protection from re-infection. Health care workers are highly exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and are therefore also more likely to become re-infected. We utilized quantitative, multi-antigen, multi-epitope SARS-CoV-2 protein microarrays to measure IgG and IgA titres against various domains of the nucleocapsid and spike proteins. Potential re-infections in a large, diverse health care worker cohort (N = 300) during the second wave of the pandemic were identified by assessing the IgG anti-N titres before and after the second wave. We assessed epitope coverage and antibody titres between the ‘single infection’ and ‘re-infection’ groups. Clear differences were observed in the breadth of the anti-N response before the second wave, with the epitope coverage for both IgG (p = 0.019) and IgA (p = 0.015) being significantly increased in those who did not become re-infected compared to those who did. Additionally, the IgG anti-N (p = 0.004) and anti-S titres (p = 0.018) were significantly higher in those not re-infected. These results highlight the importance of the breadth of elicited antibody epitope coverage following natural infection in protection from re-infection and disease in the COVID-19 pandemic.