Association between humoral serological markers levels and risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection after the primary COVID-19 vaccine course among ANRS0001S COV-POPART cohort participants.

BACKGROUND

We assessed the prognostic value of serological humoral markers measured one month after the last dose of the primary COVID-19 vaccine course for predicting the risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 SARS-CoV-2 infection over the following six months in specific populations.

METHODS

ANRS0001SCOV-POPART is a French nationwide multicenter prospective observational cohort study assessing the immune response to Covid-19 vaccines routinely administered to 11 subgroups of patients with chronic disease and a control group. Participants from the ANRS0001S COV-POPART were included if they received at least two doses of Covid-19 vaccine for the primary vaccine course, had measurements of anti-Spike, anti-receptor binding domain (RBD) IgG-specific or neutralizing antibodies one month after the end of the primary vaccine course, without being infected by SARS-CoV-2 before the measurement. SARS-CoV-2 infections defined by a positive PCR/antigenic test or seroconversion to detectable anti nucleocapsid antibodies were evaluated until the first COVID-19 booster injection. Cox proportional hazards models taking into account interval-censored data were implemented to estimate the association between each antibody level and the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Predictive performances were evaluated by the area under the receiving operating characteristic curve (AUROC).

RESULTS

Two thousand five hundred seventy adults from a specific population and 1,123 from the control group were included. The cumulative probabilities of SARS-CoV-2 infections at five months after serological measurement were 6.0% 95% confidence interval: [5.0; 7.9] and 10.1% 95% confidence interval: [8.3; 11.9], respectively. Higher levels of anti-Spike IgG antibody were associated with a lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the control group, but not in the specific populations. Among the specific populations, AUROC were 74.5%, 74.9%, and 72.4% for anti-Spike IgG, anti-RBD IgG, and neutralizing antibodies, respectively. AUROC were superior in the specific populations, 82.0%, 81.2%, and 81.4% for anti-Spike IgG, anti-RBD IgG, and neutralizing antibodies, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Vaccine-induced antibody response after the primary course of Covid-19 infection only moderately discriminated between participants developing a SARS-CoV-2 infection during the Omicron wave.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT04824651 (first posted: 2021-04-01).