Open AccessDried blood spots as option to monitor the anti-sars-cov-2 antibody response after infection or vaccination
Author(s) -
A Carthaus,
C Görgens,
A Knoop,
H Geyer,
M Thevis
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
deutsche zeitschrift für sportmedizin
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.231
H-Index - 20
ISSN - 0344-5925
DOI - 10.5960/dzsm.2021.519
Subject(s) - vaccination , dried blood , medicine , dried blood spot , antibody , blood sampling , immunology , whole blood , biology , chemistry , chromatography , genetics
Rationale: Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses elicited by infection or vaccination vary among individuals and over time. Their knowledge is of particular importance in, amongst others, elite sport. Can dried blood spots serve as a minimally-invasive, low-cost, decentralized tool to monitor the quantitative antibody response and thus represent an alternative to full blood tests? Methods: Cross-validation of dried blood and venous blood samples of 27 individuals post-infection and 96 individuals post-vaccination, longitudinal antibody monitoring of 27 individuals after vaccination using different vaccines and vaccine schedules and detection of seropositive individuals in a cohort of 557 people using self-collected DBS (dried blood spots) and two commercial immunoassays. Findings: Plasma and DBS values were highly correlated allowing for extrapolation of plasma values from DBS using a factor of a least 10 following the presented procedure. Capillary volumetric sampling and self-sampling produced reliable results. After vaccination, participants showed heterogenous antibody responses but a consistent increase after the second dose. DBS allowed for the analysis of a huge sample volume in a timely manner by limited laboratory personnel. Discussion: DBS offer the possibility of infection and vaccination traceability of individuals and cohorts via minimally-invasive self-sampling. This way, they allow to screen and monitor the presence and evolution of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a qualitative and quantitative manner. Using two commercial, automated assays enables large-scale and frequent testing, global implementation and comparability of results.