Persistence of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies Depends on the Analytical Kit: A Report for Up to 10 Months after Infection

Abstract

Several studies have described the long-term kinetics of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies but long-term follow-up data, i.e., >6 months, are still sparse. Additionally, the literature is inconsistent regarding the waning effect of the serological response. The aim of this study was to explore the temporal dynamic changes of the immune response after SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitalized and non-hospitalized symptomatic patients over a period of 10 months. Six different analytical kits for SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection were used. Positivity rates, inter-assay agreement and kinetic models were determined. A high inter-individual and an inter-methodology variability was observed. Assays targeting total antibodies presented higher positivity rates and reached the highest positivity rates sooner compared with assays directed against IgG. The inter-assay agreement was also higher between these assays. The stratification by disease severity showed a much-elevated serological response in hospitalized versus non-hospitalized patients in all assays. In this 10-month follow-up study, serological assays showed a clinically significant difference to detect past SARS-CoV-2 infection with total antibody assays presenting the highest positivity rates. The waning effect reported in several studies should be interpreted with caution because it could depend on the assay considered.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• SARS-CoV-2
• antibody
• kinetics
• long-term
• waning effect