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Dr. Lin, Yi-Ling

Distinguished Research Fellow
Division Chief
  • 02-2789-9013 (Lab) (Room No: 443)
  • 02-2652-3902
  • 02-2785-8847 (Fax)

Specialty:
  • Molecular Virology
  • Viral Pathogenesis
  • Viral Immunology

Education and Positions:
  • 1992, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA

    2020 ~ date, CEO, Emerging Infectious Disease Division (EIDD), Biomedical Translation Research Center (BioTReC), Academia Sinica

     

    Contact Information:


Highlight Detail
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Longitudinal neutralizing antibody responses after SARS-CoV-2 infection: A convalescent cohort study in Taiwan

Dr. Lin, Yi-Ling
Journal of Microbiology, Immunology and Infection, Jun 07, 2023

 

 

 

 

Background

Understanding the neutralizing antibody (NAb) titer against COVID-19 over time is important to provide information for vaccine implementation. The longitudinal NAb titer over one year after SARS-CoV-2 infection is still unclear. The purposes of this study are to evaluate the duration of the neutralizing NAb titers in COVID-19 convalescents and factors associated with the titer positive duration.

Methods

A cohort study followed COVID-19 individuals diagnosed between 2020 and 2021 May 15th from the COVID-19 database from the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. We analyzed NAb titers from convalescent SARS-CoV-2 individuals. We used generalized estimating equations (GEE) and a Cox regression model to summarize the factors associated with NAb titers against COVID-19 decaying in the vaccine-free population.

Results

A total of 203 convalescent subjects with 297 analytic samples were followed for a period of up to 588 days. Our study suggests that convalescent COVID-19 in individuals after more than a year and four months pertains to only 25% of positive titers. The GEE model indicates that longer follow-up duration was associated with a significantly lower NAb titer. The Cox regression model indicated the disease severity with advanced condition was associated with maintaining NAb titers (adjusted hazard ratio: 2.01, 95% CI: 1.11–3.63) and that smoking was also associated with higher risk of negative NAb titers (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.33–0.92).

Conclusions

Neutralizing antibody titers diminished after more than a year. The antibody titer response against SARS-CoV-2 in naturally convalescent individuals provides a reference for vaccinations.