Some residents of the city and district of Vilnius and Kaunas will soon find invitations to participate in a new important scientific study in their mailboxes. In the joint Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU) and Vilnius University In the (VU) project, researchers will assess the extent of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the level of antibodies against this infection.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the biggest public health challenges of our time, which has claimed close to 7 million lives worldwide. lives, and in Lithuania 9,5 thousand died from this disease. population.
"Currently, SARS-CoV-19, the causative agent of COVID-2, is no longer so dangerous, and most of the population is vaccinated and feels safe. However, both in Lithuania and around the world, there are few studies on serological monitoring of SARS-CoV-2, which are very necessary for the discussion about vaccination in the future", - observes one of the researchers conducting the study, Dr. Martynas Simanavičius.
Most of the adult population received a booster dose of the vaccine a year ago. Research shows that virus-specific antibodies persist for 2 months after SARS-CoV-13 infection, and the vaccine's effect is enhanced by previous infection. However, very little information is available on vaccine response in groups of individuals who have contracted or not contracted COVID-19.
In order to assess the true extent of infection and the effectiveness of vaccination, serological tests that detect specific antibodies to viral pathogens are usually performed.
The first such large-scale seroepidemiological study in Lithuania was conducted in 2020. The study aimed to estimate how many residents were infected with COVID-19, as not all asymptomatic cases were included in the official statistics. in 2020 the study used rapid serological tests available at the time, which could only answer the question of whether or not antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 had been formed.
LSMU and VU are currently conducting a joint project funded by the Lithuanian Science Council (LMT) "Investigation of the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Lithuania using serological methods". This study will help to assess the actual level of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the population during the last six months. The level of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in the vaccinated population will also be assessed.
According to Dr. participating in the project Indrės Kučinskaitė-Kodze, this study will use an innovative, Lithuanian test based on microarray technology, which will simultaneously quantitatively determine antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (anti-N IgG) and spike (anti-S IgG) proteins. Why are they important?
As explained by Prof. Astra Vitkauskienė, anti-S IgG proteins are detected in the blood of both vaccinated and sick individuals, while anti-N IgG is found only in sick people (since N protein is not included in vaccines). This is important in order to assess whether specific antibodies were formed in vaccinated persons due to the vaccine or due to contact with the virus itself, although the disease may not have manifested clinical symptoms and the fact of the disease was not confirmed by the detection of the virus in the nasopharynx by the PCR method. The virus in the nasopharynx is detected by the PCR method in a shorter time than the serological method of anti-N and anti-S IgG antibodies in the blood.
"We hope that the obtained results will provide very important indicators for the population of Lithuania - how long detectable antibodies remain, what is the real proportion of persons who have contracted SARS-CoV-2 infection in the population, and will complement the discussion on the need for revaccination," said the head of the study, Prof. Mindaugas Stankūnas.
Randomly selected residents of the cities and districts of Vilnius and Kaunas will soon find invitations to participate in the study in their mailboxes. Invitations will include details of the research process and contact details.
The permission of the Lithuanian Bioethics Committee was issued to conduct this study.
