Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2-specific Antibodies in a Sample of the Lithuanian Population-based Study in Spring 2023

Overview

Journal Heliyon

Specialty Social Sciences

Date 2024 Apr 29

PMID 38681561

Authors

Martynas Simanavicius

Indre Kucinskaite-Kodze

Snieguole Kaseliene

Skirmante Sauliune

Dainius Gudas

Ligita Jancoriene

Ruta Jasinskiene

Astra Vitkauskiene

Rasa Zutautiene

Aurelija Zvirbliene

Mindaugas Stankunas

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objectives: Despite positive trends in SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology, seroprevalence surveys remain an important tool for estimating the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) and spike (S) proteins in a sample of the Lithuanian population (N = 517) and evaluate how the pattern of seropositivity correlates with the levels of SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination.

Methods: Study participants (aged 18-88 years) filled in the questionnaire self-reporting their demographic-social variables, health status, and SARS-CoV-2-related status. The anti-S and anti-N IgG levels were estimated using a microarray ELISA test.

Results: After several pandemic waves and vaccination campaign, the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG in the analyzed sample was 97.87 % by March-May 2023. We determined the 96.91 % prevalence of anti-S and 58.03 % prevalence of anti-N IgG. The majority of study participants (71.18 %) had hybrid immunity induced by vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection. 20.3 % of study participants were anti-N IgG positive without reporting any previous symptoms or a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. A decline of anti-N IgG positivity within 9 months after infection was observed.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates high total seroprevalence in March-May 2023 in all age groups indicating a widely established humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in Lithuania.

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