ArticleBMC medicine2021
Antibody conversion rates to SARS-CoV-2 in saliva from children attending summer schools in Barcelona, Spain.
Article in BMC medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Determinants of long-term SARS-CoV-2 immune responses in asymptomatic-to-moderate COVID-19 patients in sub-Saharan Africa.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Determinants of antibody levels and protection against omicron BQ.1/XBB breakthrough infection.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Clinical Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Oral Fluids Following Infection and Vaccination.Clinical chemistry · 2024Review
- Article
- COVID-19 on Oral Health: A New Bilateral Connection for the Pandemic.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and determinants for salivary seropositivity among pupils and school staff: a prospective cohort study.Epidemiology and infection · 2023Article
- Sensitive Serology Measurements in the Saliva of Individuals with COVID-19 Symptoms Using a Multiplexed Immunoassay.The journal of applied laboratory medicine · 2022Article
- SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence Study in Pediatric Patients and Health Care Workers Using Multiplex Antibody Immunoassays.Viruses · 2022Article
- Guardians of the oral and nasopharyngeal galaxy: IgA and protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection.Immunological reviews · 2022Review
- SARS-CoV-2 accessory proteins reveal distinct serological signatures in children.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Oral Pathology in COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 Infection-Molecular Aspects.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Multiplex Antibody Analysis of IgM, IgA and IgG to SARS-CoV-2 in Saliva and Serum From Infected Children and Their Close Contacts.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
35 authors at 7 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSurveillance tools to estimate viral transmission dynamics in young populations are essential to guide recommendations for school opening and management during viral epidemics. Ideally, sensitive techniques are required to detect low viral load exposures among asymptomatic children. We aimed to estimate SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in children and adult populations in a school-like environment during the initial COVID-19 pandemic waves using an antibody-based field-deployable and non-invasive approach.
methodsSaliva antibody conversion defined as ≥ 4-fold increase in IgM, IgA, and/or IgG levels to five SARS-CoV-2 antigens including spike and nucleocapsid constructs was evaluated in 1509 children and 396 adults by high-throughput Luminex assays in samples collected weekly in 22 summer schools and 2 pre-schools in 27 venues in Barcelona, Spain, from June 29th to July 31st, 2020.
resultsSaliva antibody conversion between two visits over a 5-week period was 3.22% (49/1518) or 2.36% if accounting for potentially cross-reactive antibodies, six times higher than the cumulative infection rate (0.53%) assessed by weekly saliva RT-PCR screening. IgG conversion was higher in adults (2.94%, 11/374) than children (1.31%, 15/1144) (p=0.035), IgG and IgA levels moderately increased with age, and antibodies were higher in females. Most antibody converters increased both IgG and IgA antibodies but some augmented either IgG or IgA, with a faster decay over time for IgA than IgG. Nucleocapsid rather than spike was the main antigen target. Anti-spike antibodies were significantly higher in individuals not reporting symptoms than symptomatic individuals, suggesting a protective role against COVID-19.
conclusionSaliva antibody profiling including three isotypes and multiplexing antigens is a useful and user-friendlier tool for screening pediatric populations to detect low viral load exposures among children, particularly while they are not vaccinated and vulnerable to highly contagious variants, and to recommend public health policies during pandemics.
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