Longitudinal Serology of SARS-CoV-2-Infected Individuals in India: A Prospective Cohort Study

Thiruvengadam, Ramachandran; Chattopadhyay, Souvick; Mehdi, Farha; Desiraju, Bapu Koundinya; Chaudhuri, Susmita; Singh, Savita; Bhartia, Vandita; Kshetrapal, Pallavi; Mouli Natchu, Uma Chandra; Wadhwa, Nitya; Sopory, Shailaja; Wahi, Mudita; Pandey, Anil K.; Taneja, Juhi; Anand, Nidhi; Sharma, Nandini; Sharma, Pragya; Saxena, Sonal; Sindhu, Deepa; Sindhu, Brahmdeep; Sharma, Dharmendra; Shrivastava, Tripti; Dang, Arjun; Batra, Gaurav; Kang, Gagandeep; Bhatnagar, Shinjini

Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are now widely available, but there are few data regarding longitudinal serology in large cohorts, particularly those from low-income and middle-income countries. We established an ongoing prospective cohort of 3,840 SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals according to RT-PCR in the Delhi-National Capital Region of India to document clinical and immunological characteristics during illness and convalescence. The immunoglobulin G (IgG) responses to the receptor binding domain (RBD) and nucleocapsid were assessed at 0 to 7 days, 10 to 28 days, and 6 to 10 weeks after infection. The clinical predictors of seroconversion were identified by multivariable regression analysis. The seroconversion rates during the postinfection windows of 0 to 7 days, 10 to 28 days, and 6 to 10 weeks were 46%, 84.7%, and 85.3%, respectively (N = 743). The proportion with a serological response increased with the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). All participants with severe disease, 89.6% with mild to moderate infection, and 77.3% of asymptomatic participants had IgG antibodies to the RBD antigen. The threshold values for the nasopharyngeal viral RNA RT-PCR of a subset of asymptomatic and symptomatic seroconverters were comparable (P = 0.48) to those of nonseroconverters (P = 0.16) (N = 169). This is the first report of longitudinal humoral immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 over a period of 10 weeks in South Asia. The low seropositivity of asymptomatic participants and differences between assays highlight the importance of contextualizing the understanding of population serosurveys.