NEWS A new study from Region Kronoberg and Umeå University has followed how antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19 developed in blood donors throughout the pandemic. The results show that the antibody development in the Swedish population is comparable to countries with stricter restrictions. The relationship between antibodies and factors such as age, sex and blood group has also been investigated.
Clinical chemistry and transfusion medicine at Växjö Central Hospital acted quickly. Even before the virus began to spread in Sweden, they began testing blood donors for COVID-19. The early start and scope of the analysis, which included over 20,000 samples, has provided the region with a unique research material that follows the development of antibodies from the start of the pandemic in March 2020 to June 2022.
"We were able to follow developments and give an indication to our infection control doctor about how the spread of infection looked in the region. At the same time, we can now investigate the link to gender, age and blood groups," says Annika Petersson, head of operations and first author of the study.
Previous studies have investigated the relationship between antibodies, age and sex in patients. This study is one of the few on blood donors and it also describes the influence of blood groups, including the Rh system, which makes the results particularly significant.
The study revealed several interesting results. It showed that the presence of antibodies was more common in younger people, but lower in Rh-negative individuals and those with blood group AB.
"Antibodies play an important role in the ability to create a good immunological response to infections," explains Kim Ekblom, senior physician at Clinical Chemistry and associate professor at Umeå University.
"Studies show that optimal activation of the immune system is crucial to fight the virus effectively. It is possible that the immune system of people with blood group AB and those who are Rh-negative is not optimally structured to face SARS-CoV-2, which may explain the lower incidence of antibodies in these groups.”
The study likewise showed that despite the fact that the antibodies tended to decrease slightly faster in older individuals as well as women and for certain blood groups, they remained in the body for a long time, indicating a lasting immunity in many individuals.
The study is unique in its kind, as it is the only published study from Sweden that follows antibody levels over a longer period of time and on such a large sample of the population. The study provides important insights into the effects of the Swedish pandemic strategy.
"Our conclusion is that the Swedish strategy of not implementing a lockdown during the pandemic had no major effect on the prevalence of antibodies in the population," says Annika Petersson.
"If you compare with countries such as Austria or the United States, the spread of infection in the population was similar.
The study contributes valuable knowledge about how SARS-CoV-2 antibodies vary and persist in different parts of the population. The findings could help refine strategies for monitoring and understanding immunity in the community, as well as provide insights that could be useful in future pandemic management.
(The text was originally published by Region Kronoberg)
