Humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 infection among liver transplant recipients.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_8FC720DDECC5
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 infection among liver transplant recipients.
Journal
Gut
Author(s)
Becchetti C., Broekhoven AGC, Dahlqvist G., Fraga M., Zambelli M.F., Ciccarelli O., Saouli A.C., Trizzino A., Banz V., Dufour J.F., Roukens AHE, Torres Morales S.P., Myeni S.K., Kikkert M., Feltkamp MCW, Coenraad M.J.
ISSN
1468-3288 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0017-5749
Publication state
Published
Issued date
04/2022
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
71
Number
4
Pages
746-756
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Multicenter Study
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Immunosuppressive agents are known to interfere with T and/or B lymphocytes, which are required to mount an adequate serologic response. Therefore, we aim to investigate the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in liver transplant (LT) recipients after COVID-19.
Prospective multicentre case-control study, analysing antibodies against the nucleocapsid protein, spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 and their neutralising activity in LT recipients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19-LT) compared with immunocompetent patients (COVID-19-immunocompetent) and LT recipients without COVID-19 symptoms (non-COVID-19-LT).
Overall, 35 LT recipients were included in the COVID-19-LT cohort. 35 and 70 subjects fulfilling the matching criteria were assigned to the COVID-19-immunocompetent and non-COVID-19-LT cohorts, respectively. We showed that LT recipients, despite immunosuppression and less symptoms, mounted a detectable antinucleocapsid antibody titre in 80% of the cases, although significantly lower compared with the COVID-19-immunocompetent cohort (3.73 vs 7.36 index level, p<0.001). When analysing anti-S antibody response, no difference in positivity rate was found between the COVID-19-LT and COVID-19-immunocompetent cohorts (97.1% vs 100%, p=0.314). Functional antibody testing showed neutralising activity in 82.9% of LT recipients (vs 100% in COVID-19-immunocompetent cohort, p=0.024).
Our findings suggest that the humoral response of LT recipients is only slightly lower than expected, compared with COVID-19 immunocompetent controls. Testing for anti-S antibodies alone can lead to an overestimation of the neutralising ability in LT recipients. Altogether, routine antibody testing against separate SARS-CoV-2 antigens and functional testing show that the far majority of LT patients are capable of mounting an adequate antibody response with neutralising ability.
Keywords
Antibody Formation, COVID-19/immunology, Case-Control Studies, Female, Humans, Immunity, Humoral, Immunosuppression Therapy, Immunosuppressive Agents/adverse effects, Liver Transplantation, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, SARS-CoV-2, Transplant Recipients, COVID-19, immune response, liver transplantation
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
21/01/2022 17:34
Last modification date
07/11/2023 7:11
Usage data