Sex, age, and hospitalization drive antibody responses in a COVID-19 convalescent plasma donor population

• DOI: 10.1172/jci142004
• Publication Date: 2020-08-07T16:00:59Z
• Authors: Sabra L. Klein; Andrew Pekosz; Han-Sol Park; Rebecca L. Ursin; Janna R. Shapiro; Sarah E. Benner; Kirsten Littlefield; Swetha Kumar; Harnish Mukesh Naik; Michael J. Betenb...; Ruchee Shrestha; Annie A. Wu; Robert M. Hughes; Imani Burgess; Patricio Caturegli; Oliver Laeyendecker; Thomas C. Quinn; David Sullivan; Shmuel Shoham; Andrew D. Redd; Evan M. Bloch; Arturo Casadevall; Aaron A.R. Tobian
• Keywords: Convalescent plasma; 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak; Convalescence

Convalescent plasma is a leading treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but there paucity of data identifying its therapeutic efficacy. Among 126 potential convalescent donors, the humoral immune response was evaluated using severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS–CoV-2) virus neutralization assay with Vero-E6-TMPRSS2 cells; commercial IgG and IgA ELISA to detect spike (S) protein S1 domain (EUROIMMUN); IgA, IgG, IgM indirect ELISAs full-length S or receptor–binding (S-RBD); an avidity assay. We used multiple linear regression predictive models assess correlations between antibody responses demographic clinical characteristics. titers were greater than either S1, S, S-RBD in overall population. Of samples, 101 (80%) had detectable neutralizing (nAb) titers. Using nAb as reference, confirmed 95%–98% nAb-positive 20%–32% nAb-negative samples still positive. Male sex, older age, hospitalization COVID-19 associated increased across serological assays. There substantial heterogeneity among emerged factors that can be identify individuals high likelihood having strong antiviral responses.