Early Humoral Response Correlates with Disease Severity and Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients
Anwar M. Hashem,
Abdullah Algaissi,
Sarah A. Almahboub,
Mohamed A. Alfaleh,
Turki S. Abujamel,
Sawsan S. Alamri,
Khalid A. Alluhaybi,
Haya I. Hobani,
Rahaf H. AlHarbi,
Reem M. Alsulaiman,
M-Zaki ElAssouli,
Sharif Hala,
Naif K. Alharbi,
Rowa Y. Alhabbab,
Ahdab A. AlSaieedi,
Wesam H. Abdulaal,
Abdullah Bukhari,
Afrah A. AL-Somali,
Fadwa S. Alofi,
Asim A. Khogeer,
Arnab Pain,
Almohanad A. Alkayyal,
Naif A. M. Almontashiri,
Bakur Mahmoud Ahmad,
Xuguang Li
Affiliations
Anwar M. Hashem
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Abdullah Algaissi
Department of Medical Laboratories Technology, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Jazan University, Jazan 45142, Saudi Arabia
Sarah A. Almahboub
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Mohamed A. Alfaleh
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Turki S. Abujamel
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Sawsan S. Alamri
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Khalid A. Alluhaybi
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Haya I. Hobani
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Rahaf H. AlHarbi
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Reem M. Alsulaiman
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
M-Zaki ElAssouli
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Sharif Hala
King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Jeddah 11426, Saudi Arabia
Naif K. Alharbi
King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh 14611, Saudi Arabia
Rowa Y. Alhabbab
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Ahdab A. AlSaieedi
Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Wesam H. Abdulaal
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Abdullah Bukhari
Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Imam Mohammed Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh 11432, Saudi Arabia
Afrah A. AL-Somali
Infectious Diseases Department, King Abdullah Medical Complex, Jeddah 24246, Saudi Arabia
Fadwa S. Alofi
Infectious Diseases Department, King Fahad Hospital, Almadinah Almunwarah 11525, Saudi Arabia
Asim A. Khogeer
Plan and Research Department, General Directorate of Health Affairs Makkah Region, Ministry of Health, Makkah 11176, Saudi Arabia
Arnab Pain
Pathogen Genomics Laboratory, Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE), Thuwal 23955, Saudi Arabia
Almohanad A. Alkayyal
Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, University of Tabuk, Tabuk 71491, Saudi Arabi
Naif A. M. Almontashiri
Center for Genetics and Inherited Diseases, Taibah University, Almadinah Almunwarah 71491, Saudi Arabia
Bakur Mahmoud Ahmad
Immunology Research Program, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh 14611, Saudi Arabia
Xuguang Li
Centre for Biologics Evaluation, Biologics and Genetic Therapies Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB), Health Canada and WHO Collaborating Center for Standardization and Evaluation of Biologicals, Ottawa, ON K1A 0K9, Canada
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, continues to spread globally with significantly high morbidity and mortality rates. Antigen-specific responses are of unquestionable value for clinical management of COVID-19 patients. Here, we investigated the kinetics of IgM, IgG against the spike (S) and nucleoproteins (N) proteins and their neutralizing capabilities in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with different disease presentations (i.e., mild, moderate or severe), need for intensive care units (ICU) admission or outcomes (i.e., survival vs death). We show that SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG, IgM and neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) were readily detectable in almost all COVID-19 patients with various clinical presentations. Interestingly, significantly higher levels of nAbs as well as anti-S1 and -N IgG and IgM antibodies were found in patients with more severe symptoms, patients requiring admission to ICU or those with fatal outcomes. More importantly, early after symptoms onset, we found that the levels of anti-N antibodies correlated strongly with disease severity. Collectively, these findings provide new insights into the kinetics of antibody responses in COVID-19 patients with different disease severity.
