SARS-CoV-2 NEUTRALIZING RESPONSE beyond 1 YEAR after INFECTION

ABSTRACT

Background: Understanding the determinants of long-term immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and the concurrent impact of vaccination and emerging variants of concern will guide optimal strategies to achieve global protection against the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A prospective cohort of 332 COVID 19 patients was followed beyond one year. Plasma neutralizing activity was evaluated using HIV-based reporter pseudoviruses expressing different SARS-CoV-2 spikes and was longitudinally analyzed using mixed-effects models. Results: Long-term neutralizing activity was stable beyond one year after infection in mild/asymptomatic and hospitalized participants. However, longitudinal models suggest that hospitalized individuals generate both short-and long-lived memory B cells, while responses of non-hospitalized were dominated by long-lived B cells. In both groups, vaccination boosted responses to natural infection. In unvaccinated participants, viral variants, mainly beta, reduced the efficacy of long-term (>300 days from infection) neutralization. Importantly, despite showing higher neutralization titers, hospitalized patients showed lower cross-neutralization of beta variant compared to non-hospitalized. Multivariate analysis identified severity of primary infection as the factor that independently determines both the magnitude and the inferior cross-neutralization activity of long-term neutralizing responses. Conclusion: Neutralizing response induced by SARS-CoV-2 is heterogeneous in magnitude but stable beyond one year after infection. Vaccination boosts these long-lasting natural neutralizing responses and should help counteract the resistance to neutralization of variants of concern such as the beta variant. Severity of primary infection determines higher magnitude but poorer quality of long-term neutralizing responses.