COVID-19 convalescent plasma boosts early antibody titer and does not influence the adaptive immune response

Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, United States of America. Bioinformatics, Vitalant Research Institute, San Francisco, United States of America. Public Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States of America. Department of Emergency Medicine, The University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States of America. NCI, Bethesda, United States of America. Vitalant Research Institute, San Francisco, United States of America.

JCI insight. 2023
Abstract
Multiple randomized, controlled clinical trials have yielded discordant results regarding the efficacy of convalescent plasma in outpatients, with some showing an approximate two-fold reduction in risk and others showing no effect. We quantified binding and neutralizing antibody levels in 492 of the 511 participants from the C3PO trial of a single unit of COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) vs. saline infusion. In a subset of 70 participants, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were obtained to define the evolution of B and T cell responses through day 30. Binding and neutralizing antibody responses were measurably higher one hour post-infusion in recipients of CCP compared to saline plus multivitamin, but levels achieved by the native immune system by day 15 were much higher than seen immediately after CCP administration. Infusion of CCP did not block generation of the host antibody response or skew B or T cell phenotype or maturation. Activated CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were associated with more severe disease outcome. These data show that CCP leads to a measurable boost in anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, but that the boost is modest and may not be sufficient to alter disease course.
Study details
Language : eng
Credits : Bibliographic data from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine