Cohort profile: A Québec-based plasma donor biobank to study COVID-19 immunity (PlasCoV)
Marc Germain1, Antoine Lewin2, Renée Bazin2
1Medical Affairs and Innovation, Héma-Québec, Québec, Montreal and Québec, Canada marc.germain@hema-quebec.qc.ca.
Insights
Long-term COVID-19 immunity is complex. Previously infected individuals with one vaccine dose showed the strongest response, while the anti-nucleocapsid antibody response wanes quickly after infection.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases
- Public Health
Background:
- Understanding long-term humoral immunity to COVID-19 is challenging due to emerging variants and evolving immunity.
- Héma-Québec established the PlasCoV biobank in April 2021 to study COVID-19 immunity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate long-term humoral immunity to COVID-19.
- To analyze vaccine-induced and infection-induced immune responses.
- To assess the impact of variants on immune response specificity.
Main Methods:
- Established a large-scale plasma biobank (PlasCoV) with over 86,000 samples from 15,000 donors.
- Utilized longitudinal samples for pre-vaccination, post-vaccination, pre-infection, and post-infection analyses.
- Conducted seroprevalence studies to track antibody waning.
Main Results:
- Previously infected individuals receiving one BNT162b2 vaccine dose had the strongest immune response.
- SARS-CoV-2-naïve individuals required two vaccine doses for maximal response.
- Anti-nucleocapsid antibody response waned rapidly, with up to one-third of previously infected donors becoming seronegative.
Conclusions:
- Hybrid immunity (prior infection + vaccination) can elicit a robust initial response.
- The waning of specific antibody responses, like anti-N, highlights the need for ongoing monitoring and potential booster strategies.
- The PlasCoV biobank provides a valuable resource for longitudinal studies on COVID-19 immunity and its persistence.
Purpose:
The long-term humoral immunity to COVID-19 is not well understood owing to the continuous emergence of new variants of concern, the evolving vaccine-induced and infection-induced immunity, and the limited duration of follow-up in previous studies. As the sole blood service in Québec (Canada), Héma-Québec established a COVID-19-focused biobank ('PlasCoV') in April 2021.
Participants:
As of January 2022, the biobank included 86 483 plasma samples from 15 502 regular donors (age range=18-84 years, females=49.7%), for an average of 5.6 donations per donor. Nearly two-thirds (65.6%) of biobank donors made at least two donations, with many donors having provided samples prevaccination and postvaccination (3061 (19.7%)) or preinfection and postinfection (131 (0.8%)), thus allowing for longitudinal studies on vaccine-induced and infection-induced immunity.
Findings To Date:
A study that used PlasCoV samples revealed that previously infected individuals who received a single dose of the BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine exhibited the strongest immune response. By contrast, SARS-CoV-2-naïve individuals required two vaccine doses to produce a maximal immune response. Furthermore, the results of a four-phase seroprevalence study indicated that the antinucleocapsid (N) response wanes rapidly, so that up to one-third of previously infected donors were seronegative for anti-N.
Future Plans:
Donations from individuals who consented to participate before 1 October 2022 will be collected up until 31 March 2023. This plasma biobank will facilitate the conduct of longitudinal studies on COVID-19 immunity, thus helping to provide valuable insights into the anti-SARS-CoV-2 immune response and its persistence, and the effects of vaccination and variants on the specificity of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 immune response.
More Related Videos
07:39An In vitro Co-infection Model to Study Plasmodium falciparum-HIV-1 Interactions in Human Primary Monocyte-derived Immune Cells
Published on: August 15, 2012
11:00Visualization, Quantification, and Mapping of Immune Cell Populations in the Tumor Microenvironment
Published on: March 25, 2020
