Pre-existing humoral immunity to low pathogenic human coronaviruses exhibits limited cross-reactive antibodies response against SARS-CoV-2 in children

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection causes asymptomatic or mild symptoms, even rare hospitalization in children. A major concern is whether the pre-existing antibodies induced by low pathogenic human coronaviruses (LPH-CoVs) in children can cross-react with SARS-CoV-2. To address this unresolved question, we analyzed the pre-existing spike (S)-specific immunoglobin (Ig) G antibodies against LPH-CoVs and the cross-reactive antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in 658 serum samples collected from children prior to SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. We found that the seroprevalence of these four LPH-CoVs reached 75.84%, and about 24.64% of the seropositive samples had cross-reactive IgG antibodies against the nucleocapsid, S, and receptor binding domain antigens of SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, the re-infections with different LPH-CoVs occurred frequently in children and tended to increase the cross-reactive antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. From the forty-nine serum samples with cross-reactive anti-S IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, we found that seven samples with a median age of 1.4 years old had detected neutralizing activity for the wild-type or mutant SARS-CoV-2 S pseudotypes. Interestingly, all of the seven samples contained anti-S IgG antibodies against HCoV-OC43. Together, these data suggest that children’s pre-existing antibodies to LPH-CoVs have limited cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies against SRAS-CoV-2.

Effect of seasonal coronavirus immune imprinting on the immunogenicity of inactivated COVID-19 vaccination

“…Studies also showed the presence of cross-reactive antibodies and T cells against SARS-CoV-2 by prior sCoVs infection ( 9 , 10 ), implying that the phenomenon of immune imprinting might also exist between the different coronaviruses. Indeed, some studies demonstrated that the different levels of pre-existing sCoVs-specific antibodies might be correlated with the susceptibility and disease severity of SARS-CoV-2 infections ( 11 , 12 ), and thus it is suggested that the prevalence of pre-existing sCoVs antibodies might be a potential factor to affect the discrepancy of COVID-19 pandemic and the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination among different regions ( 13 , 14 ). However, the existing literature is still limited regarding the pre-existing sCoVs-specific antibodies and their potential influence on SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination effectiveness.…”

SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in research personnel with asymptomatic infection in the pre-vaccination stage

“…10 NP IgM antibodies may be present in subjects who have had a recent SARS CoV-2 infection, although they also indicate infections caused by other low-pathogenicity coronaviruses (HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, HCoV-HKU1, HCoV-OC43) due to antigen cross-reaction. 11 In this study, 36 subjects (23.6%) were found to be positive for NP IgM antibodies and 16 (10.5%) to be positive for anti-RBD IgG plus NP IgM in the pre-vaccination sample, which suggests that the latter group had SARS-CoV-2 acute infection, without any apparent risk of exposure being detected. It is probable that workers who tested positive for NP IgM and negative for anti-RBD IgG were infected by other circulating coronaviruses during the seasonal period in which blood samples were collected (winter).…”

Persistent immune and clotting dysfunction detected in saliva and blood plasma after COVID-19

“…1A &B, the healthy controls already presented a considerable level of antibodies binding to the SARS-CoV-2 proteins and neutralizing pseudovirus particles. The pre-existing antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in pre-pandemic samples has also been described elsewhere [ [72] , [73] , [74] , [75] , [76] ], which is suspected to be the cross-reactive response from prior endemic corona virus infections. The high baseline titer might have reduced the power to detect increases of antibody responses to the infection.…”