Genetic, Clinical, Epidemiological, and Immunological Profiling of IgG Response Duration after SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Abstract

The IgG response against SARS-CoV-2 infection can persist for over six months (long response; LR). However, among 30% of those infected, the duration can be as short as three months or less (short response; SR). The present study assembled serological data on the anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG response duration of two previous studies and integrated these results with the plasmatic cytokine levels and genetic profile of 10 immune-relevant SNPs that were also previously published, along with the plasmatic total IgG, IgA, and IgM levels, allowing for the genetic, clinical, immunological, and epidemiological aspects of the post-COVID-19 IgG response duration to be understood. The SR was associated with previous mild acute COVID-19 and with an SNP (rs2228145) in IL6R related to low gene expression. Additionally, among the SR subgroup, no statistically significant Spearman correlations were observed between the plasma levels of IL-17A and the Th17 regulatory cytokines IFN-γ (rs = 0.2399; p = 0.1043), IL-4 (rs = 0.0273; p = 0.8554), and IL-2 (rs = 0.2204; p = 0.1365), while among the LR subgroup, weaker but statistically significant Spearman correlations were observed between the plasma levels of IL-17A and IFN-γ (rs = 0.3873; p = 0.0016), IL-4 (rs = 0.2671; p = 0.0328), and IL-2 (rs = 0.3959; p = 0.0012). These results suggest that the Th17 response mediated by the IL-6 pathway has a role in the prolonged IgG response to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• immunology
• antibodies
• host genetics