Prior infection by seasonal coronaviruses, as assessed by serology, does not prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease in children, France, April to June 2020

Abstract

Background Children have a low rate of COVID-19 and secondary severe multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS) but present a high prevalence of symptomatic seasonal coronavirus infections. Aim We tested if prior infections by seasonal coronaviruses (HCoV) NL63, HKU1, 229E or OC43 as assessed by serology, provide cross-protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods We set a cross-sectional observational multicentric study in pauci- or asymptomatic children hospitalised in Paris during the first wave for reasons other than COVID (hospitalised children (HOS), n = 739) plus children presenting with MIS (n = 36). SARS-CoV-2 antibodies directed against the nucleoprotein (N) and S1 and S2 domains of the spike (S) proteins were monitored by an in-house luciferase immunoprecipitation system assay. We randomly selected 69 SARS-CoV-2-seropositive patients (including 15 with MIS) and 115 matched SARS-CoV-2-seronegative patients (controls (CTL)). We measured antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV as evidence for prior corresponding infections and assessed if SARS-CoV-2 prevalence of infection and levels of antibody responses were shaped by prior seasonal coronavirus infections. Results Prevalence of HCoV infections were similar in HOS, MIS and CTL groups. Antibody levels against HCoV were not significantly different in the three groups and were not related to the level of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the HOS and MIS groups. SARS-CoV-2 antibody profiles were different between HOS and MIS children. Conclusion Prior infection by seasonal coronaviruses, as assessed by serology, does not interfere with SARS-CoV-2 infection and related MIS in children.

Cross-reactive humoral immune responses against seasonal human coronaviruses in COVID-19 patients with different disease severities

“…Dugas et al and Greenbaum et al showed that high levels of anti-HCoV-OC43 or anti-HCoV-HKU1 S and N antibodies were associated with reduced severity of COVID-19 or hospital death in studies with a small number of samples ( Dugas et al, 2021 , Dugas et al, 2020 , Greenbaum et al, 2021 ). Unlike the above reports, Ringlander et al and Sermet-Gaudelus et al also showed that previously verified infections with seasonal HCoVs were not associated with protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection or disease exacerbation in adults or children, respectively ( Ringlander et al, 2021 , Sermet-Gaudelus et al, 2021 ). Indeed, our study showed there was no association between the antibody titers of seasonal HCoVs and disease severity in the early phase of COVID-19.…”

“…Protein homology between SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal HCoV antigens is approximately 19.8% for S1, 39.9% for S2, and 33.0% for N ( Saletti et al, 2020 ). Potential cross-reactivity of immunity between SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal HCoVs has been reported, but it is unknown whether the humoral immunity induced by previous infections of seasonal HCoVs can prevent disease exacerbation ( Dugas et al, 2021 , Greenbaum et al, 2021 , Hicks et al, 2021 , Laing et al, 2020 , Mateus et al, 2020 , Ng et al, 2020 , Ringlander et al, 2021 , Sermet-Gaudelus et al, 2021 , Wang. et al, 2020a ).…”

Humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal coronaviruses in children and adults in north-eastern France

“…targeted to Spike or Nucleocapsid) that harbored moderate SARS-CoV-2 neutralising activity [24]. Whether this neutralising activity is due to previous HCoV infections is still unclear, with several studies finding little difference between SARS-CoV-2 seropositive and seronegative children in HCoV antibodies [15,25].…”

SARS-CoV-2 antibodies remain detectable 12 months after infection and antibody magnitude is associated with age and COVID-19 severity

“…The magnitude of the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection has been positively correlated with COVID-19 severity [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] , but the confounding effect of age on this association remains unresolved [26][27][28] . Even less understood is whether cross-reactive seasonal human coronavirus (HCoV) antibodies correlate with the kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 humoral responses across acute and post-acute timescales after SARS-CoV-2 infection [29][30][31][32] . Pre-existing HCoV antibodies that cross-react with but do not cross-neutralize SARS-CoV-2 have been detected 30,[33][34][35][36] , and recent infection with HCoVs has been correlated with reduced COVID-19 severity 37 .…”