Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

February 26, 2021

Seasonal Human Coronavirus Antibodies Are Boosted upon SARS-CoV-2 Infection but Not Associated with Protection

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  • Cross reactive antibodies generated by pre-pandemic human coronavirus (hCoV) infections are common but are not associated with protection against infection or poor clinical outcomes after infection with SARS-CoV-2. Using samples from a pre-pandemic biobank, 4% of pre-pandemic sera contained antibodies that bound the full-length spike from SARS-CoV-2 and 16% of samples contained antibodies capable of binding SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid. Pre-pandemic serum containing these antibodies was wholly incapable of neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 in either pseudovirus or live virus assays. The baseline presence or absence of non-neutralizing cross-reactive antibodies was not associated with protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection or clinical outcomes after infection in a cohort of 251 participants who went on to develop SARS-CoV-2. Levels of some of these hCoV antibodies were boosted upon infection with SARS-CoV-2. 

Anderson et al. (Feb 9, 2021). Seasonal Human Coronavirus Antibodies Are Boosted upon SARS-CoV-2 Infection but Not Associated with Protection. Cell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.02.010