Browsing by Author "Meyer, Burnet Adriaan"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    An anti-SARS-CoV-2 quantitative study to determine the effect of time on the antibody titre, post-vaccination
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-01) Meyer, Burnet Adriaan; De Beer, Corena; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dept. of Pathology. Medical Virology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In 2019, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak emerged in Wuhan, China, rapidly evolving to a pandemic. Vaccines such as messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)- based and Adenovirus-based, have been developed to counter severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, many factors, for example, immunosuppression and prior infection can affect the antibody titre. This study evaluated the effectiveness in Anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin (Ig) G production and decline over time, indicating the potential requirement for additional boosters. Furthermore, this study focused on how Adenovirus-based vaccine boosters and breakthrough infections affected the antibody titre. A total of 184 samples were collected from two cohorts which consisted of 67 participants. Samples were collected at baseline, week 3, and week 6 post-booster for Cohort A (laboratory workers at the Western Cape Blood Service). Cohort B (staff and students at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University) had samples collected at baseline, week 2, week 4 and week 8 post-booster. The samples were tested for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 Anti-nucleocapsid (N) as well as Anti-spike (S) antibodies. The Anti-N antibodies indicated that a participant had a natural infection to SARS-CoV-2 while the Anti-S antibodies were utilised to examine the influence of age, gender and time on vaccine-induced antibodies. This findings of this study demonstrated that vaccine-induced antibodies were still detectable six months following the initial vaccination. A significant increase was observed for both cohorts, when comparing the baseline titre with the different timepoints, post-booster. Multiple samples were found to be Anti-N positive, suggesting that these participants were potential asymptomatic cases. Variations were found in the Anti-S antibody titre based on different age groups, although these variations were not statistically significant. Moreover, the results have indicated that gender does not affect the Anti-S antibody titre. This research enhances the understanding of antibody titre dynamics, contributing to a better grasp of immune longevity. Further studies are recommended to determine the impact of combining different boosters on the antibody titre, and assess the difference in antibody titre between monovalent boosters with bivalent boosters.