Physiology and Pharmacology Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-17-2021
Journal
Pathophysiology
Volume
28
Issue
2
First Page
212
Last Page
223
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.3390/pathophysiology28020014
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, is a global health care emergency. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 serological profiling of critically ill COVID-19 patients was performed to determine their humoral response. Blood was collected from critically ill ICU patients, either COVID-19 positive (+) or COVID-19 negative (−), to measure anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulins: IgM; IgA; IgG; and Total Ig (combined IgM/IgA/IgG). Cohorts were similar, with the exception that COVID-19+ patients had a greater body mass indexes, developed bilateral pneumonias more frequently and suffered increased hypoxia when compared to COVID-19-patients (p < 0.05). The mortality rate for COVID-19+ patients was 50%. COVID-19 status could be determined by anti-SARS-CoV-2 serological responses with excellent classification accuracies on ICU day 1 (89%); ICU day 3 (96%); and ICU days 7 and 10 (100%). The importance of each Ig isotype for determining COVID-19 status on combined ICU days 1 and 3 was: Total Ig, 43%; IgM, 27%; IgA, 24% and IgG, 6%. Peak serological responses for each Ig isotype occurred on different ICU days (IgM day 13 > IgA day 17 > IgG persistently increased), with the Total Ig peaking at approximately ICU day 18. Those COVID-19+ patients who died had earlier or similar peaks in IgA and Total Ig in their ICU stay when compared to patients who survived (p < 0.005). Critically ill COVID-19 patients exhibit anti-SARS-CoV-2 serological responses, including those COVID-19 patients who ultimately died, suggesting that blunted serological responses did not contribute to mortality. Serological profiling of critically ill COVID-19 patients may aid disease surveillance, patient cohorting and help guide antibody therapies such as convalescent plasma.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Citation of this paper:
Fraser, Douglas D., Gediminas Cepinskas, Marat Slessarev, Claudio M. Martin, Mark Daley, Maitray A. Patel, Michael R. Miller, Eric K. Patterson, David B. O’Gorman, Sean E. Gill, Ian Higgins, Julius P.P. John, Christopher Melo, Lylia Nini, Xiaoqin Wang, Johannes Zeidler, and Jorge A. Cruz-Aguado. 2021. "Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients Exhibit Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Serological Responses" Pathophysiology 28, no. 2: 212-223. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathophysiology28020014
