Comparative study of SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers between male and female COVID-19 patients living in Kurdistan region of Iraq

Abstract

Recently, there is increasing evidence that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) causes men to experience more serious symptoms and have a higher mortality rate than women, but the association between sex and immune response stays unknown till now, and weather patient’s prognosis associated with sex or not is another vague in COVID-19. In this study, the SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody titer test was performed for 727 patients who were a positive RT-PCR result for COVID-19 and we determined the difference in immune response in both genders. Patients were divided into two groups based on their genders, which were 383 males and 344 females. Plasma was collected from the patients after 17 days of diagnosis with COVID-19, and the concentrations of specific antibodies (IgG and IgM) was measured by multiparametric immunoassay system (VIDAS). Results demonstrated that there was no significant difference in both IgM and IgG production in male participants compared to women. Moreover, despite there was a weak significant positive association between age and IgM in male patients, while there was no significant correlation between IgG and age for the same gender. On the other hand, a slight positive correlation between IgM and IgG with age was observed in female participants. Finally, it concluded that there was no sex biases in patients with COVID-19 in Erbil, Iraq. So, these findings are crucial to treat and care male and female’s patients infected with COVID-19 at hospitals.

The Levels of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein IgG Antibodies Before and After the Third Dose of Vaccination Against COVID-19

“…This observation is in line with Soeorg et al and Yang et al, 43 , 44 which can be associated with many factors specific for older individuals like: more severe symptoms during COVID-19, expanded catalog of memory B and T cells through accumulated immunological memory and higher level of cytokines associated with comorbidities what can stimulate the SARS-CoV-2 humoral response. What is more, older people suffer from COVID-19 more often, 45 which might not have been noted in our data, but it influenced the level of tested antibodies. On the other hand, Barda et al 46 revealed that people over 60 years of age suffered less from COVID-19 after the 3rd dose of vaccination compared to younger age groups.…”

“…In the case of gender – our findings are similar to those of others: 1 , 36 , 50–52 Females have statistically higher and more stable level of IgG anti-SARS-CoV-2 in comparison to males, even if they started with similar IgG levels. 45 The phenomenon of stronger immunological response among women is commonly observed also in contact with other pathogenic antigens and can be modified by many genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors. 53 A scoring metric for immunological aging also revealed that men exhibit significantly higher immune-aging scores than women.…”

Gender-based differences of inflammatory, coagulation, and cardiac markers in COVID-19 patients in Erbil city

“…More importantly, IgG level in infected women is higher than in men, pretending why the survival rate and better patient's prognosis are higher in females (Zeng et al, 2020;Xiang et al, 2020). However, there were no significant differences in IgG levels in both genders in the study done by Ishaq et al (2021) in Erbil-Iraq.…”

Assessment of Longevity of COVID-19 Vaccination Among Hematology Healthcare Workers

“…This might be because some female individuals have a shorter period between vaccination and IgG analysis, so they showed a lower titer of IgG or another explanation could be that males initially take a longer time to produce antibodies, which will last for a longer period after vaccination compared to females, who have quick response to produce antibodies and shorter period of antibody sustainability (19). Consistently, Ishaq et al (20) observed a non-signi cant difference between males and females in terms of IgG and IgM production following COVID-19 vaccination.…”