Detection of neutralising antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 to determine population exposure in Scottish blood donors between March and May 2020



Thompson, Craig P, Grayson, Nicholas E, Paton, Robert S, Bolton, Jai S, Lourenco, Jose, Penman, Bridget S, Lee, Lian N, Odon, Valerie, Mongkolsapaya, Juthathip, Chinnakannan, Senthil
et al (show 26 more authors) (2020) Detection of neutralising antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 to determine population exposure in Scottish blood donors between March and May 2020. EUROSURVEILLANCE, 25 (42). pp. 33-41.

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Abstract

BackgroundThe progression and geographical distribution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the United Kingdom (UK) and elsewhere is unknown because typically only symptomatic individuals are diagnosed. We performed a serological study of blood donors in Scotland in the spring of 2020 to detect neutralising antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 as a marker of past infection and epidemic progression.AimOur objective was to determine if sera from blood bank donors can be used to track the emergence and progression of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic.MethodsA pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 virus microneutralisation assay was used to detect neutralising antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. The study comprised samples from 3,500 blood donors collected in Scotland between 17 March and 18 May 2020. Controls were collected from 100 donors in Scotland during 2019.ResultsAll samples collected on 17 March 2020 (n = 500) were negative in the pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 virus microneutralisation assay. Neutralising antibodies were detected in six of 500 donors from 23 to 26 March. The number of samples containing neutralising antibodies did not significantly rise after 5-6 April until the end of the study on 18 May. We found that infections were concentrated in certain postcodes, indicating that outbreaks of infection were extremely localised. In contrast, other areas remained comparatively untouched by the epidemic.ConclusionAlthough blood donors are not representative of the overall population, we demonstrated that serosurveys of blood banks can serve as a useful tool for tracking the emergence and progression of an epidemic such as the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: ISARIC4C Investigators, Humans, Pneumonia, Viral, Coronavirus Infections, Antibodies, Viral, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Neutralization Tests, Population Surveillance, Prevalence, Cluster Analysis, Sensitivity and Specificity, Seroepidemiologic Studies, Inhibitory Concentration 50, Models, Immunological, Adult, Blood Donors, Urban Population, Scotland, Female, Male, Antibodies, Neutralizing, Pandemics, Geography, Medical, Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 26 Oct 2020 08:36
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 23:26
DOI: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.42.2000685
Open Access URL: https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1...
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3105144