Pilot Study Results on Antibodies to the S- and N-Proteins of SARS-CoV-2 in Paired Sera from COVID-19 Patients with Varying Severity

• Published in: Antibodies (Basel) 2023-02, Vol.12 (1), p.19
• Main Authors: Desheva, Yulia, Lerner, Anna, Shvedova, Tamara, Kopteva, Olga, Kudar, Polina, Koroleva, Irina, Leontieva, Galina, Suvorov, Alexander
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptive immunity; Amino acid metabolism; Antibodies; Blood pressure; blood tests; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccines; Enzymes; Ethics; Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; Health aspects; Hospitalization; Immunoglobulin A; Immunoglobulin G; Immunoglobulin M; Infection; Infections; Laboratories; Lymphocytes; Measurement; Medical research; Neutrophils; Oxygen saturation; Pathogenesis; Personal information; Polymerase chain reaction; Protein folding; Proteins; Respiration; Respiratory diseases; serum antibodies; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; severity; Software; Testing; Vaccines; Viral antibodies; Viral infections
• ISSN: 2073-4468; 2073-4468
• DOI: 10.3390/antib12010019

In this retrospective cohort study, we investigated the formation of individual classes of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in archived serial sera from hospitalized patients with the medium-severe ( = 17) and severe COVID-19 ( = 11). The serum/plasma samples were studied for the presence of IgG, IgM and IgA antibodies to the recombinant S- and N-proteins of SARS-CoV-2. By the 7th day of hospitalization, an IgG increase was observed in patients both with a positive PCR test and without PCR confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Significant increases in the anti-spike IgG levels were noted only in moderate COVID-19. The four-fold increase of IgM to N-protein was obtained more often in the groups with mild and moderate infections. The IgA levels decreased during the infection to both the S- and N-proteins, and the most pronounced decrease was in the severe COVID-19 patients. The serum IgG to S-protein one week after hospitalization demonstrated a high-power relationship (r = 0.75) with the level of RBD antibodies. There was a medium strength relationship between the levels of CRP and IgG (r = 0.43). Thus, in patients with acute COVID-19, an increase in antibodies can develop as early as 1 week of hospital stay. The SARS-CoV-2 antibody conversions may confirm SARS-CoV-2 infection in PCR-negative patients.