Anti-membrane Antibodies Persist at Least One Year and Discriminate Between Past Coronavirus Disease 2019 Infection and Vaccination.

Background: The consequences of past coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection for personal and population health are emerging, but accurately identifying distant infection is a challenge. Anti-spike antibodies rise after both vaccination and infection and anti-nucleocapsid antibodies rapidly decline.
Methods: We evaluated anti-membrane antibodies in COVID-19 naive, vaccinated, and convalescent subjects to determine if they persist and accurately detect distant infection.
Results: We found that anti-membrane antibodies persist for at least 1 year and are a sensitive and specific marker of past COVID-19 infection.
Conclusions: Thus, anti-membrane and anti-spike antibodies together can differentiate between COVID-19 convalescent, vaccinated, and naive states to advance public health and research.
Competing Interests: Potential conflicts of interest. M. F. A., D. H. O., and M. A. S. are listed as inventors on a patent filed related to this study (PCT/US2021/051143; IDENTIFICATION OF SARS-COV-2 EPITOPES DISCRIMINATING COVID-19 INFECTION FROM CONTROL AND METHODS OF USE). Promega provided Lumit SARS-CoV-2 Immunoassay kits. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed.
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