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IgG antibody levels against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in mother–child dyads after COVID-19 vaccination

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Abstract

Purpose

We aimed to assess IgG antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (anti-SARS-CoV-2 S IgG) in vaccinated mothers and their infants at delivery and 2–3 months of age.

Methods

We conducted a prospective study on mothers who received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BNT162b2, Moderna mRNA-1273, or Oxford-AstraZeneca ChAdOx1-S) during pregnancy and on their infants. The baseline was at the time of delivery (n = 93), and the end of follow-up was 2 to 3 months post-partum (n = 53). Serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 S IgG titers and ACE2 binding inhibition levels were quantified by immunoassays.

Results

Mothers and infants had high anti-SARS-CoV-2 S IgG titers against the B.1 lineage at birth. However, while antibody titers were maintained at 2–3 months post-partum in mothers, they decreased significantly in infants (p < 0.001). Positive and significant correlations were found between anti-SARS-CoV-2 S IgG titers and ACE2-binding inhibition levels in mothers and infants at birth and 2–3 months post-partum (r > 0.8, p < 0.001). Anti-S antibodies were also quantified for the Omicron variant at 2–3 months post-partum. The antibody titers against Omicron were significantly lower in mothers and infants than those against B.1 (p < 0.001). Again, a positive correlation was observed for Omicron between IgG titers and ACE2-binding inhibition both in mothers (r = 0.818, p < 0.001) and infants (r = 0.386, p < 0.005). Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination near delivery positively impacted anti-SARS-CoV-2 S IgG levels.

Conclusions

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines induce high anti-SARS-CoV-2 S titers in pregnant women, which can inhibit the binding of ACE2 to protein S and are efficiently transferred to the fetus. However, there was a rapid decrease in antibody levels at 2 to 3 months post-partum, particularly in infants.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

SARS-CoV-2:

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2

COVID-19:

Coronavirus disease 2019

ACE2:

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2

IgG:

Immunoglobulin G

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S IgG:

IgG against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein

HGUGM:

Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón

ELISA:

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

AUC:

Area under the curve

IQR:

Interquartile range

GLM:

Generalized Linear Models

AMR:

Arithmetic mean ratio

aAMR:

Adjusted arithmetic mean ratio

95%CI:

95% Confidence interval

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Acknowledgements

This study would not have been possible without the collaboration of all the patients, medical and nursery staff, and data managers who participated in the project.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCII; grant numbers COV20_00808). The study was also funded by the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER) de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CB21/13/00044 and CB21/13/00077) and de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN) (CB22/01/00041). LTD is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) under grant agreement “CD20/00025” through the Sara Borrell Program. DSC is a ‘Sara Borrell’ researcher supported by ISCIII (grant number CD20CIII/00001).

Author information

Author notes

  1. María José Muñoz-Gómez, María Martin-Vicente and Sara Vigil-Vazquez have contributed equally to this study as first authors.

  2. Salvador Resino, Maria Luisa Navarro and Isidoro Martinez have contributed equally to this study as last authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unidad de Infección Viral e Inmunidad, Centro Nacional de Microbiología, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain

    María José Muñoz-Gómez, María Martin-Vicente, Daniel Sepulveda-Crespo, Salvador Resino & Isidoro Martinez

  2. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

    María José Muñoz-Gómez, Alicia Hernanz Lobo, Daniel Sepulveda-Crespo, Salvador Resino, Maria Luisa Navarro & Isidoro Martinez

  3. Sevicio de Neonatología, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain

    Sara Vigil-Vazquez & Itziar Carrasco

  4. Grupo de Investigación en Infectología Pediátrica, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain

    Alicia Hernanz Lobo & Maria Luisa Navarro

  5. Servicio de Pediatría, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain

    Alicia Hernanz Lobo, Angela Manzanares & Maria Luisa Navarro

  6. Unidad de Biología Viral, Centro Nacional de Microbiología, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

    Vicente Mas, Mónica Vázquez & Olga Cano

  7. Servicio de Obstetricia y Ginecología, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain

    Clara Zamora & Mar Muñoz-Chapuli

  8. Departamento de Microbiología Clínica y Enfermedades Infecciosas, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain

    Roberto Alonso

  9. Laboratorio de InmunoBiología Molecular, Sección de Inmunología. Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain

    Laura Tarancon-Diez & María Ángeles Muñoz-Fernández

  10. Spanish HIV-HGM BioBank, Madrid, Spain

    María Ángeles Muñoz-Fernández

  11. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

    María Ángeles Muñoz-Fernández

  12. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Maria Luisa Navarro

Authors
  1. María José Muñoz-Gómez
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  2. María Martin-Vicente
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  3. Sara Vigil-Vazquez
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  4. Itziar Carrasco
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  5. Alicia Hernanz Lobo
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  6. Vicente Mas
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  7. Mónica Vázquez
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  8. Angela Manzanares
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  9. Olga Cano
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  10. Clara Zamora
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  11. Roberto Alonso
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  12. Daniel Sepulveda-Crespo
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  13. Laura Tarancon-Diez
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  14. María Ángeles Muñoz-Fernández
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  15. Mar Muñoz-Chapuli
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  16. Salvador Resino
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  17. Maria Luisa Navarro
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  18. Isidoro Martinez
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Contributions

Data curation: MJMG, MMV, SVV, IC, AHL, LTD, MMC, CZ, RA, MMC, MLN, and IM. Investigation: MJMG, MMV, SVV, IC, AHL, VM, MV, AM, OC, SR, MMF, MLN, and IM. Data analysis and interpretation: MJMG, SR, and IM. Supervision and visualization: MLN, SR, and IM. Funding acquisition: SR, MAMF, and MLN.

Drafting the article: MJMG, SR, and IM. Critical revision of the article: MMV, DSC, VM, and MLN. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Salvador Resino or Isidoro Martinez.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests. The funding sources played no role in the study's design, collection, analysis, interpretation of the data, or manuscript writing.

Ethical approval and consent to participate

The HGUGM Ethics Committee approved the study (Ref.: IRB 00006051), which was conducted following the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants gave their informed consent before enrollment.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 400 KB)

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Muñoz-Gómez, M.J., Martin-Vicente, M., Vigil-Vazquez, S. et al. IgG antibody levels against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in mother–child dyads after COVID-19 vaccination. Infection (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-023-02111-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-023-02111-x

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