Preexisting and de novo humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in humans
By K. Ng, Nikhil Faulkner, G. Cornish, Annachiara Rosa, R. Harvey, S. Hussain, Rachel Ulferts, C. Earl, A. Wrobel, D. Benton and 38 more. Science, 2020
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Antibodies predating infection Immunological memory after infection with seasonal human coronaviruses (hCoVs) may potentially contribute to cross-protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Ng et al. report that in a cohort of 350 SARS-CoV-2–uninfected individuals, a small proportion had circulating immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies that could cross-react with the S2 subunit of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (see the Perspective by Guthmiller and Wilson). By contrast, COVID-19 patients generated IgA, IgG, and IgM antibodies that recognized both the S1 and S2 subunits. The anti-S2 antibodies from SARS-CoV-2–uninfected patients showed specific neutralizing activity against both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-2 S pseudotypes. A much higher percentage of SARS-CoV-2–uninfected children and adolescents were positive for these antibodies compared with adults. This pattern may be due to the fact that children and adolescents generally have higher hCoV infection rates and a more diverse antibody repertoire, which may explain the age distribution of COVID-19 susceptibility. Science, this issue p. 1339; see also p. 1272 SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies can be found in some uninfected individuals—predominantly children and adolescents. Zoonotic introduction of novel coronaviruses may encounter preexisting immunity in humans. Using diverse assays for antibodies recognizing SARS-CoV-2 proteins, we detected preexisting humoral immunity. SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein (S)–reactive antibodies were detectable using a flow cytometry–based method in SARS-CoV-2–uninfected individuals and were particularly prevalent in children and adolescents. They were predominantly of the immunoglobulin G (IgG) class and targeted the S2 subunit. By contrast, SARS-CoV-2 infection induced higher titers of SARS-CoV-2 S–reactive IgG antibodies targeting both the S1 and S2 subunits, and concomitant IgM and IgA antibodies, lasting throughout the observation period. SARS-CoV-2–uninfected donor sera exhibited specific neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-2 S pseudotypes. Distinguishing preexisting and de novo immunity will be critical for our understanding of susceptibility to and the natural course of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Subfields: Animal Science and Zoology, Infectious Diseases
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1caa8049434dadefcc51202d7658fb682195deca
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In Infectious Diseases
Citations in the corpus
- Adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 (2021, positive): “The data also indicate that SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody responses generally develop from naive B cells, not frompre-existing cross-reactive memory B cells (Anderson et al., 2020; Ng et al., 2020; Nguyen-Contant et al., 2020; Shrock et al., 2020; Song et al., 2020).”
- mRNA Vaccines Induce Durable Immune Memory to SARS-CoV-2 and Variants of Concern (2021, positive): “Previous work has shown that the S2 domain of SARSCoV-2 spike is more conserved with other coronaviruses, and it is likely that S2-binding memory B cells detected at baseline reflect cross-reactivity to these commonly circulating coronaviruses (41, 42).”