Effect of the Previous History of the SARS-CoV-2 Infections on Antibody Levels among Sputnik V Vaccinated Healthcare Workers.

Background: Measuring the level of antibodies produced post-vaccination in response to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is considered a strategy for estimating the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Objective: To examine the antibody levels among the healthcare workers in different hospitals in Mashhad, Iran after receiving the second dose of Sputnik V.

Methods: In this study, we enrolled 230 healthcare workers for evaluating the Gam-COVID-Vac or Sputnik V after the second administration in different hospitals in Mashhad. Antibody levels of spike protein were quantitatively evaluated in a sample of 230 negative RT-PCR tests for the COVID-19 individuals. The analysis has been done based on an immunological assay using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The infection history of the subjects and their families was examined through their medical records.

Results: Our results demonstrated a significant association between a higher titer of IgG and a previous history of the COVID-19 infection (P<0.001). Moreover, the chance of detecting antibodies titer more than 50 AU/ml was 16.99 in these people which was significantly higher than in people without a history of infection pre-vaccination [%95CI: (7.38,39.12), P<0.001].

Conclusion: This result demonstrates that the efficacy of antibody production is related to the previous history of the SARS-CoV-2 infections. Ongoing monitoring of the level of antibody among vaccinated populations will help evaluating the effect of vaccines on humoral immunity status.