Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that is the causative agent of coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19). As of 17 April 2020, it has infected 2 114 269 people, resulting in 145 144 deaths. The timing, magnitude and longevity of humoral immunity is not yet understood for SARS-CoV-2. Nevertheless, understanding this is urgently required to inform the likely future dynamics of the pandemic, to guide strategies to allow relaxation of social distancing measures and to understand how to deploy limiting vaccine doses when they become available to achieve maximum impact. SARS-CoV-2 is the seventh human coronavirus to be described. Four human coronaviruses circulate seasonally and cause common colds. Two other coronaviruses, SARS and MERS, have crossed from animal sources into humans but have not become endemic. Here we review what is known about the human humoral immune response to epidemic SARS CoV and MERS CoV and to the seasonal, endemic coronaviruses. Then we summarize recent, mostly non-peer reviewed, studies into SARS-CoV-2 serology and reinfection in humans and non-human primates and summarize current pressing research needs.
Highlights
SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that is the causative agent of Coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVD-19)
It is clear that most people infected with SARS-CoV-2 display an antibody response between 10 and 14 days after infection
There is a paucity of information about the longevity of the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2, but it is known that antibodies to other human coronaviruses wane over time, and there are some reports of reinfection with homologous coronaviruses after as little as 80 days
Summary
SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that is the causative agent of Coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVD-19). Antibody tires to SARS CoV can be detected in people 12 years after infection, over 70% the people studied (n=20) have extremely low titres (Guo et al, 2020), at 3 and 12 years post infection SARS CoV antibody titres are likely to be very limited for virus neutralisation with little or no ability to protect a person from reinfection, this requires experimental determination.
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