Clinical characteristics and plasma antibody titer of patients with COVID-19 in Zhejiang, China.

Wei-ling Xiang; Jing-jing Cheng; Lian-peng WU; Bing-yu Chen; Wen-xin LI; Dan-ying Qiu; Wei Zhang; Fei-hang GE; Dong Chen; Zhen Wang

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Clinical characteristics and plasma antibody titer of patients with COVID-19 in Zhejiang, China.

Author: Wei-Ling XIANG ¹ ; Jing-Jing CHENG ¹ ; Lian-Peng WU ² ; Bing-Yu CHEN ¹ ; Wen-Xin LI ³ ; Dan-Ying QIU ⁴ ; Wei ZHANG ⁴ ; Fei-Hang GE ⁴ ; Dong CHEN ² ; Zhen WANG ¹
Author Information

1. Research Center of Blood Transfusion Medicine, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Laboratory Medicine, Department of Blood Transfusion, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, People's Hospital of Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou 310014, China.
2. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Wenzhou Central Hospital and Sixth People's Hospital of Wenzhou, Wenzhou 325000, China.
3. Research on the Application of Big Data-driven Integrated Blood Collection and Supply Auxiliary Diagnosis and Treatment System, Dongyang People's Hospital, Dongyang 322100, China.
4. Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine Research Institute of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, People's Hospital of Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou 310014, China.
Publication Type:Journal Article
Keywords: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); Convalescent plasma; Clinical characteristics; Antibody titer
MeSH: Adult; Aged; Antibodies, Neutralizing/blood*; Antibodies, Viral/blood*; COVID-19/therapy*; China; Female; Humans; Immunization, Passive; Immunoglobulin G/blood*; Immunoglobulin M/blood*; Male; Middle Aged
From: Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B 2020;21(12):955-960
CountryChina
Language:English
Abstract: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which first affected humans in China on December 31, 2019 (Shi et al., 2020). Coronaviruses generally cause mild, self-limiting upper respiratory tract infections in humans, such as the common cold, pneumonia, and gastroenteritis (To et al., 2013; Berry et al., 2015; Chan et al., 2015). According to the Report of the World Health Organization (WHO)-China Joint Mission on COVID-19 (WHO, 2020), the case fatality rate of COVID-19 increases with age, while the rate among males is higher than that among females (4.7% and 2.8%, respectively). Since an effective vaccine and specific anti-viral drugs are still under development, passive immunization using the convalescent plasma (CP) of recovered COVID-19 donors may offer a suitable therapeutic strategy for severely ill patients in the meantime. So far, several studies have shown therapeutic efficacy of CP transfusion in treating COVID-19 cases. A pilot study first reported that transfusion of CP with neutralizing antibody titers above 1:640 was well tolerated and could potentially improve clinical outcomes through neutralizing viremia in severe COVID-19 cases (Chen et al., 2020). Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM are the most abundant and important antibodies in protecting the human body from viral attack (Arabi et al., 2015; Marano et al., 2016). Our study aimed to understand the aspects of plasma antibody titer levels in convalescent patients, as well as assessing the clinical characteristics of normal, severely ill, and critically ill patients, and thus provide a basis for guiding CP therapy. We also hoped to find indicators which could serve as a reference in predicting the progression of the disease.