SARS-CoV-2 antibody persistence in COVID-19 convalescent plasma donors: Dependency on assay format and applicability to serosurveillance.
Clara Di GermanioGraham SimmonsKathleen KellyRachel MartinelliOrsolya DarstMahzad AzimpouranMars StoneKelsey HazeghEduard GrebeShuting ZhangPeijun MaMarek OrzechowskiJames E GomezJonathan LivnyDeborah T HungRalph R VassalloMichael P BuschLarry J DumontPublished in: Transfusion (2021)
These data show that in addition to variable individual responses and associations with disease severity, the detection assay chosen contributes to the heterogeneous results in antibody stability over time. Depending on the scope of the research, one assay may be preferable over another. For serosurveillance studies, direct, double Ag-sandwich assays appear to be the best choice due to their stability; in particular, algorithms that include both S1- and NC-based assays can help reduce the rate of false-positivity and discriminate between natural infection and vaccine-derived seroreactivity.