Serologic responses of 42 MERS-coronavirus-infected patients according to the disease severity

• Published in: Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease 2017-10, Vol.89 (2), p.106-111
• Main Authors: Ko, Jae-Hoon, Müller, Marcel A., Seok, Hyeri, Park, Ga Eun, Lee, Ji Yeon, Cho, Sun Young, Ha, Young Eun, Baek, Jin Yang, Kim, So Hyun, Kang, Ji-Man, Kim, Yae-Jean, Jo, Ik Joon, Chung, Chi Ryang, Hahn, Myong-Joon, Drosten, Christian, Kang, Cheol-In, Chung, Doo Ryeon, Song, Jae-Hoon, Kang, Eun-Suk, Peck, Kyong Ran
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antibodies, Viral - blood; Antibody; Coronavirus Infections - blood; Coronavirus Infections - immunology; Coronavirus Infections - virology; Humans; Immunoglobulin A - blood; Immunoglobulin A - immunology; Immunoglobulin G - blood; Immunoglobulin G - immunology; Immunoglobulin M - blood; Immunoglobulin M - immunology; Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus - immunology; Pneumonia - blood; Pneumonia - diagnosis; Pneumonia - virology; Prognosis; Retrospective Studies; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Seroconversion; Serologic response; Virology
• ISSN: 0732-8893; 1879-0070
• DOI: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2017.07.006

We evaluated serologic response of 42 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)-infected patients according to 4 severity groups: asymptomatic infection (Group 0), symptomatic infection without pneumonia (Group 1), pneumonia without respiratory failure (Group 2), and pneumonia progressing to respiratory failure (Group 3). None of the Group 0 patients showed seroconversion, while the seroconversion rate gradually increased with increasing disease severity (0.0%, 60.0%, 93.8%, and 100% in Group 0, 1, 2, 3, respectively; P = 0.001). Group 3 patients showed delayed increment of antibody titers during the fourth week, while Group 2 patients showed robust increment of antibody titer during the third week. Among patients having pneumonia, 75% of deceased patients did not show seroconversion by the third week, while 100% of the survived patients were seroconverted (P = 0.003). •Serologic responses of 42 MERS-CoV-infected patients were evaluated.•Patients were divided into 4 disease severity groups.•The seroconversion rate gradually increased with increasing disease severity.•Seventy-five percent of deceased patients did not show seroconversion by the third week.