Infants and young children generate more durable antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection than adults

• Published in: iScience Vol. 26; no. 10; p. 107967
• Main Authors: Joshi, Devyani, Nyhoff, Lindsay E., Zarnitsyna, Veronika I., Moreno, Alberto, Manning, Kelly, Linderman, Susanne, Burrell, Allison R., Stephens, Kathy, Norwood, Carson, Mantus, Grace, Ahmed, Rafi, Anderson, Evan J., Staat, Mary A., Suthar, Mehul S., Wrammert, Jens
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 20.10.2023; Elsevier
• Subjects: Clinical finding; Clinical finding
• ISSN: 2589-0042; 2589-0042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107967

As SARS-CoV-2 becomes endemic, it is critical to understand immunity following early-life infection. We evaluated humoral responses to SARS-CoV-2 in 23 infants/young children. Antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike antigens peaked approximately 30 days after infection and were maintained up to 500 days with little apparent decay. While the magnitude of humoral responses was similar to an adult cohort recovered from mild/moderate COVID-19, both binding and neutralization titers to WT SARS-CoV-2 were more durable in infants/young children, with spike and RBD IgG antibody half-life nearly 4X as long as in adults. IgG subtype analysis revealed that while IgG1 formed the majority of the response in both groups, IgG3 was more common in adults and IgG2 in infants/young children. These findings raise important questions regarding differential regulation of humoral immunity in infants/young children and adults and could have broad implications for the timing of vaccination and booster strategies in this age group. [Display omitted] •Infants show more durable antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection than adults•Infants and adults differ in IgG subclass distribution upon SARS-CoV-2 infection•Seasonal coronaviruses infections do not impact antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 Clinical finding