Longitudinal Surveillance of COVID-19 Antibodies in Pediatric Healthcare Workers
<b>Background:</b> Vaccines against COVID-19 target the spike protein. There is minimal information on longitudinal COVID-19 immune profiling in recovered versus naïve and vaccinated versus non-vaccinated healthcare workers (HCWs). <b>Methods:</b> This is a prospective longitudinal observational cohort of pediatric HCWs (pHCWs) conducted during 2020-2022 at an academic center, exploring the impact of COVID-19 vaccination on immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody titers over time and cross-reactivity with other coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, and seasonal coronaviruses (HCoV-HKU1 and HCoV-OC43). <b>Results:</b> A total of 642 pHCWs initially enrolled, and 337 participants had repeat IgG titers measured post-vaccine and post-booster. Most participants were female, median age range of 31-40 years. Anti-spike was higher in all vaccinated individuals versus non-vaccinated (<i>p</i> < 0.0001) and naïve versus infected (<i>p</i> < 0.0001). A single dose of vaccine was sufficient to attain maximum titers in recovered participants versus naïve who received both doses of vaccine. Anti-spike titers dropped significantly at 9 months after the primary series, whereas sustained anti-spike titers were observed at 9 months post-booster. <b>Conclusions:</b> All vaccinated pHCWs developed antibodies to spike. COVID-19 infection and/or vaccination yielded antibodies that cross-reacted to SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, HCoV-HKU1, and HCoV-OC43. Anti-spike titers were more durable post-booster compared to the primary series. Longitudinal immune profiling of COVID-19 responses provides vital data to shape public health policies, optimize vaccine strategies, and strengthen pandemic preparedness.
Authors
- Grace Mantus
- Sneh Lata Gupta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6323-2819)
- Laura Benedit
- Deborah Leake
- Jens Wrammert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1733-4424)
- Dunia Hatabah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6685-2902)
- Mark Griffiths (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8612-1783)
- Stacy Heilman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0214-4262)
- Carson Norwood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2831-7507)
- Patrick S. Sullivan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7728-0587)
- Mehul S. Suthar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2686-8380)
- Uyen Le (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9900-9675)
- Giorgi Maziashvili (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8081-4842)
- Claudia R. Morris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6019-2858)
- Bridget Wynn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9512-3465)
- Chris A. Rees (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6449-0377)
- Andrés Camacho-González (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5615-5114)
- Rawan Korman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9780-9589)
- Miriam B. Vos
- S. P. Shih
Institutions
- Emory University (US)
- Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Vaccines
- Published
- 2025-02-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines13020163
- Primary Topic
- SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00