• Afzaal, Javairiya
• Reynolds, Ben C.
• Tighe, Patrick J.
• Irving, William L.
• Tarr, Alexander
• Kim, Jon Jin
• Bamber, Holly N.
• Lunn, Andrew

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract </jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title> Background </jats:title><jats:p> Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 11 March 2020, as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spread rapidly across the world. We investigated the seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in pediatric patients on dialysis or kidney transplantation in the UK.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>Excess sera samples were obtained prospectively during outpatient visits or haemodialysis sessions and analysed using a custom immunoassay calibrated with population age-matched healthy controls. Two large pediatric centres contributed samples.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>In total, 520 sera from 145 patients (16 peritoneal dialysis, 16 haemodialysis, 113 transplantation) were analysed cross-sectionally from January 2020 until August 2021. No anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody positive samples were detected in 2020 when lockdown and enhanced social distancing measures were enacted. Thereafter, the proportion of positive samples increased from 5% (January 2021) to 32% (August 2021) following the emergence of the Alpha variant. Taking all patients, 32/145 (22%) were seropositive, including 8/32 (25%) with prior laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and 12/32 (38%) post-vaccination (one of whom was also infected after vaccination). The remaining 13 (41%) seropositive patients had no known stimulus, representing subclinical cases. Antibody binding signals were comparable across patient ages and dialysis versus transplantation and highest against full-length spike protein versus spike subunit-1 and nucleocapsid protein.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence was low in 2020 and increased in early 2021. Serological surveillance complements nucleic acid detection and antigen testing to build a greater picture of the epidemiology of COVID-19 and is therefore important to guide public health responses.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Graphical abstract</jats:title></jats:sec>

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• size-exclusion chromatography
• dialysis