Journal Article

SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and neutralizing activity in donor and patient blood

Lu, Chuanyi M., Servellita, Venice, Akagi, Naomi, Gu, Wei, Pillai, Satish K., Neumann, Neil M., Wang, Candace, Alazzeh, Fariba, Prostko, John, Shy, Brian R., Pearce, Sandra, Chiu, Charles Y., Sujishi, Kirk, Rodgers, Mary, Franz, Sergej, Simmons, Graham, Ng, Dianna L., Balcerek, Joanna, Hsu, Elaine, Goldgof, Gregory M., Green, Valerie, Sotomayor-Gonzalez, Alicia, Hills, Nancy K., Hackett, John, Williamson, Phillip, Miller, Steve, Stone, Mars, Pham, Lori, Reyes, Kevin, Du, Li, Stramer, Susan L., Glasner, Dustin R., Truong, Kent, Han, Lucy M., Santos, Yale A., Oon, Ching-Ying, Custer, Brian, Martin, Claudia Sanchez San, Busch, Michael P., Thornborrow, Edward, Hakim, Jill M. C., Kurtz, Theodore, Nguyen, David N., Qazi, Daniel, Levine, Andrew G., Bapat, Sagar P., Granados, Andrea, Coller, Kelly, Whitman, Jeffrey D.

2020

Overview

Given the limited availability of serological testing to date, the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in different populations has remained unclear. Here, we report very low SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in two San Francisco Bay Area populations. Seroreactivity was 0.26% in 387 hospitalized patients admitted for non-respiratory indications and 0.1% in 1,000 blood donors in early April 2020. We additionally describe the longitudinal dynamics of immunoglobulin-G (IgG), immunoglobulin-M (IgM), and in vitro neutralizing antibody titers in COVID-19 patients. The median time to seroconversion ranged from 10.3–11.0 days for these 3 assays. Neutralizing antibodies rose in tandem with immunoglobulin titers following symptom onset, and positive percent agreement between detection of IgG and neutralizing titers was >93%. These findings emphasize the importance of using highly accurate tests for surveillance studies in low-prevalence populations, and provide evidence that seroreactivity using SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid protein IgG and anti-spike IgM assays are generally predictive of in vitro neutralizing capacity. Highly accurate antibody tests for SARS-CoV-2 are needed for surveillance in low-prevalence populations. Here, the authors find seroprevalence of less than 1% in two San Francisco Bay Area populations at the beginning of April, and that seroreactivity is generally predictive of in vitro neutralising activity.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 631/326/596/4130 / 692/308/174 / 692/53/2421 / 692/699/255/2514 / 82/1 / 82/47 / Antibodies, Neutralizing - blood / Antibodies, Viral - immunology / Betacoronavirus - immunology / Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Coronavirus Infections - blood / Coronavirus Infections - diagnosis / Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology / Coronavirus Infections - immunology / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Testing / Humanities and Social Sciences / Humans / Immunoglobulin G - immunology / Immunoglobulin M - immunology / multidisciplinary / Pandemics / Pneumonia, Viral - blood / Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology / Pneumonia, Viral - immunology / San Francisco - epidemiology / SARS-CoV-2 / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Sensitivity and Specificity / Seroepidemiologic Studies / Serologic Tests - methods