BALTIMORE — A new study from Johns Hopkins University shows infants and toddlers who previously had COVID-19, have significantly higher levels of antibodies compared to adults.
Researchers analyzed samples from 682 children and adults in 175 Maryland households between November 2020 and March 2021. The participants had not yet received a vaccine at the time the study was conducted.
Of those samples, 56 were found to have antibodies.
The “receptor-binding domain,” which researchers say is key to fighting the virus, was present at much higher levels in the children compared to the adults —Specifically, 13 times higher in children age 0 to 4 and nine times higher in those 5 to 17 years-old.
Additionally, the level of COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies were nearly twice as high in children ages 0-4 compared to adults. Researchers say those antibodies can be used to predict protection against severe infection from the virus.
A study of hospitalized patients previously found that adults mounted higher neutralizing antibody responses than children. In contrast, several other community-based studies found that children mounted robust responses.
“Very young children in our study developed high titers of antibody to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which is the target antigen for COVID vaccines. “These findings should provide some reassurance that with the appropriate vaccine doses we can effectively immunize very young children against SARS-CoV-2,” said Dr. Ruth Karron, Director of the Johns Hopkins Vaccine Initiative at the Bloomberg School.
