Continuous population-level monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in a large European metropolitan region

Marc Emmenegger; Elena De Cecco; David Lamparter; Raphaël P B Jacquat; Julien Riou; Dominik Menges; Tala Ballouz; Daniel Ebner; Matthias M Schneider; Itzel Condado Morales; Berre Doğançay; Jingjing Guo; Anne Wiedmer; Julie Domange; Marigona Imeri; Rita Moos; Chryssa Zografou; Leyla Batkitar; Lidia Madrigal; Dezirae Schneider; Chiara Trevisan; Andres Gonzalez-Guerra; Alessandra Carrella; Irina L Dubach; Catherine K Xu; Georg Meisl; Vasilis Kosmoliaptsis; Tomas Malinauskas; Nicola Burgess-Brown; Ray Owens; Stephanie Hatch; Juthathip Mongkolsapaya; Gavin R Screaton; Katharina Schubert; John D Huck; Feimei Liu; Florence Pojer; Kelvin Lau; David Hacker; Elsbeth Probst-Müller; Carlo Cervia; Jakob Nilsson; Onur Boyman; Lanja Saleh; Katharina Spanaus; Arnold von Eckardstein; Dominik J Schaer; Nenad Ban; Ching-Ju Tsai; Jacopo Marino; Gebhard F X Schertler; Nadine Ebert; Volker Thiel; Jochen Gottschalk; Beat M Frey; Regina R Reimann; Simone Hornemann; Aaron M Ring; Tuomas P J Knowles; Milo A Puhan; Christian L Althaus; Ioannis Xenarios; David I Stuart; Adriano Aguzzi

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.105928

Continuous population-level monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in a large European metropolitan region

iScience. 2023 Feb 17;26(2):105928. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.105928. Epub 2023 Jan 4.

Authors

Marc Emmenegger¹, Elena De Cecco¹, David Lamparter², Raphaël P B Jacquat^{3

4}, Julien Riou⁵, Dominik Menges⁶, Tala Ballouz⁶, Daniel Ebner⁷, Matthias M Schneider³, Itzel Condado Morales¹, Berre Doğançay¹, Jingjing Guo¹, Anne Wiedmer¹, Julie Domange¹, Marigona Imeri¹, Rita Moos¹, Chryssa Zografou¹, Leyla Batkitar¹, Lidia Madrigal¹, Dezirae Schneider¹, Chiara Trevisan¹, Andres Gonzalez-Guerra¹, Alessandra Carrella¹, Irina L Dubach⁸, Catherine K Xu³, Georg Meisl³, Vasilis Kosmoliaptsis^{9

10}, Tomas Malinauskas¹¹, Nicola Burgess-Brown¹², Ray Owens^{11

13}, Stephanie Hatch⁷, Juthathip Mongkolsapaya¹⁴, Gavin R Screaton¹⁴, Katharina Schubert¹⁵, John D Huck¹⁶, Feimei Liu¹⁶, Florence Pojer¹⁷, Kelvin Lau¹⁷, David Hacker¹⁷, Elsbeth Probst-Müller¹⁸, Carlo Cervia¹⁸, Jakob Nilsson¹⁸, Onur Boyman^{18

19}, Lanja Saleh²⁰, Katharina Spanaus²⁰, Arnold von Eckardstein²⁰, Dominik J Schaer⁸, Nenad Ban¹⁵, Ching-Ju Tsai²¹, Jacopo Marino²¹, Gebhard F X Schertler^{21

22}, Nadine Ebert^{23

24}, Volker Thiel^{23

24}, Jochen Gottschalk²⁵, Beat M Frey²⁵, Regina R Reimann¹, Simone Hornemann¹, Aaron M Ring¹⁶, Tuomas P J Knowles^{3

4}, Milo A Puhan⁶, Christian L Althaus⁵, Ioannis Xenarios^{2

26}, David I Stuart¹¹, Adriano Aguzzi¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Neuropathology, University of Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland.
² Health2030 Genome Center, 9 Chemin des Mines, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland.
³ Centre for Misfolding Diseases, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK.
⁴ Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK.
⁵ Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
⁶ Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
⁷ Target Discovery Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7FZ, England.
⁸ Division of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland.
⁹ Department of Surgery, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK.
¹⁰ NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Organ Donation and Transplantation, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK.
¹¹ Division of Structural Biology, The Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Headington, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK.
¹² Structural Genomics Consortium, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7DQ, UK.
¹³ The Rosalind Franklin Institute, Harwell Campus, Oxford OX11 0FA, UK.
¹⁴ Nuffield Department of Medicine, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
¹⁵ Department of Biology, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
¹⁶ Department of Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
¹⁷ Protein Production and Structure Core Facility, EPFL SV PTECH PTPSP, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
¹⁸ Department of Immunology, University Hospital Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland.
¹⁹ Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland.
²⁰ Institute of Clinical Chemistry, University Hospital Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland.
²¹ Department of Biology and Chemistry, Laboratory of Biomolecular Research, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5303 Villigen-PSI, Switzerland.
²² Department of Biology, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
²³ Institute of Virology and Immunology, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
²⁴ Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
²⁵ Regional Blood Transfusion Service Zurich, Swiss Red Cross, 8952 Schlieren, Switzerland.
²⁶ Agora Center, University of Lausanne, 25 Avenue du Bugnon, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland.

Abstract

Effective public health measures against SARS-CoV-2 require granular knowledge of population-level immune responses. We developed a Tripartite Automated Blood Immunoassay (TRABI) to assess the IgG response against three SARS-CoV-2 proteins. We used TRABI for continuous seromonitoring of hospital patients and blood donors (n = 72'250) in the canton of Zurich from December 2019 to December 2020 (pre-vaccine period). We found that antibodies waned with a half-life of 75 days, whereas the cumulative incidence rose from 2.3% in June 2020 to 12.2% in mid-December 2020. A follow-up health survey indicated that about 10% of patients infected with wildtype SARS-CoV-2 sustained some symptoms at least twelve months post COVID-19. Crucially, we found no evidence of a difference in long-term complications between those whose infection was symptomatic and those with asymptomatic acute infection. The cohort of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2-infected subjects represents a resource for the study of chronic and possibly unexpected sequelae.

Keywords: Biological database; Immunology; Microbiology; Virology.

Abstract

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