The Lancet Infectious Diseases | April 8, 2024

Peluso MJ, Swank ZN, Goldberg SA, Lu S, Dalhuisen T, Borberg E, Senussi Y, Luna MA, Chang Song C, Clark A, Zamora A, Lew M, Viswanathan B, Huang B, Anglin K, Hoh R, Hsue PY, Durstenfeld MS, Spinelli MA, Glidden DV, Henrich TJ, Kelly JD, Deeks SG, Walt DR, Martin JN.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00211-1

Lancet Infect Dis. 2024

This study was performed using Simoa Homebrew assay(s).

Abstract

Persistent symptoms among some individuals who develop COVID-19 have led to the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 might, in some form or location, persist for long periods following acute infection.^{1, 2} Studies on SARS-CoV-2 persistence to date, however, have been limited by small and non-representative study populations, short durations since acute infection, unclear documentation of vaccination and reinfection histories, and the absence of a true negative comparator group to assess assay specificity (appendix p 2). To address these limitations, we evaluated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antigens in once-thawed plasma from a well characterised group of 171 adults (appendix pp 3, 9) at several timepoints in the 14 months following RNA-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, most of whom were studied before vaccination or reinfection (so-called pandemic-era participants)³. To understand the specificity of our findings, we compared them to 250 adults (appendix pp 3, 9) whose plasma was collected before 2020, who, by definition, were not infected with SARS-CoV-2 (pre-pandemic era). We used the Simoa (Quanterix) single molecule array detection platform to measure SARS-CoV-2 spike, S1, and nucleocapsid antigens (appendix p 4).^4,5