The oldest unvaccinated Covid-19 survivors in South America

Abstract

Background Although older adults are at a high risk of severe or critical Covid-19, there are many cases of unvaccinated centenarians who had a silent infection or recovered from mild or moderate Covid-19. We studied three Brazilian supercentenarians, older than 110 years, who survived Covid-19 in 2020 before being vaccinated. Results Despite their advanced age, humoral immune response analysis showed that these individuals displayed robust levels of IgG and neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against SARS-CoV-2. Enrichment of plasma proteins and metabolites related to innate immune response and host defense was also observed. None presented autoantibodies (auto-Abs) to type I interferon (IFN). Furthermore, these supercentenarians do not carry rare variants in genes underlying the known inborn errors of immunity, including particular inborn errors of type I IFN. Conclusion These observations suggest that their Covid-19 resilience might be a combination of their genetic background and their innate and adaptive immunity.

Role of Sex and Age in Fatal Outcomes of COVID-19: Women and Older Centenarians Are More Resilient

“…After a few months, she had a new infection and recovered after a few days [31]. Recently, three cases of Brazilian supercentenarians (a 114-year-old woman and two 111-and 110-year-old men) recovered from COVID-19 were reported [32]. Finally, also the oldest woman in the world, Sister Andre, born Lucille Randon, tested positive for the coronavirus at her retirement home in Toulon, but showed no symptoms and celebrated her 117th birthday [33].…”

The Phenotypic Characterization of the Oldest Italian Men from December 28, 2020 to September 23, 2021, Antonino Turturici, Suggests a Role for Immune System in the Attainment of Extreme Longevity

“…Consequently, it is reasonable to deduce that the immune system of these individuals possesses distinct characteristics that empower them to achieve remarkable levels of human longevity. Thus, studying them can shed light on the immuneinflammatory responses that should contribute either positively or negatively to the attainment of extreme longevity [8,9].…”

Human genetic determinants of COVID-19 in Brazil: challenges and future plans

“…In investigations of the role of human genetic variants on COVID-19, Brazilian researchers have also been part of the main international consortia, such as the COVID Human Genetic Effort ( https://www.covidhge.com/ ) and COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative ( https://www.covid19hg.org ), which have revealed instrumental evidence to understand the disease’s mechanisms. Brazilian centers in the Southeast and South of Brazil have been part of the collaborative networks and contributed with samples from Brazilian patients in several publications related both with to IEI and its autoimmune phenocopies ( Bastard et al, 2020 ; Goudouris et al, 2021 ; de Castro et al, 2022 ; Schidlowski et al, 2022 ; Manry et al, 2022 ; Zhang et al, 2022b ; Matuozzo et al, 2023 ) and also common variants ( Castelli et al, 2021 ; Castelli et al , 2022 ; Pereira et al, 2022 ; Secolin et al, 2021 ). However, Brazilian initiatives using genome-wide approaches for other Brazilians regions have not also been numerous.…”