Research conducted by James Musser, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Pathology & Genomic Medicine, and colleagues at Houston Methodist and Pennsylvania State University, helps define the window for donating convalescent plasma for use in treating patients with COVID-19 and helps predict who will be an ideal plasma donor.

Their findings show that there is a limited donation window of approximately 60 days post onset of COVID-19 symptoms (DPO), and that patients over 30 years of age with greater disease severity will provide convalescent plasma most suitable for immunotherapy in COVID-19 patients.

Researchers looked at IgG and IgM, which are two antibodies directed at the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and SARS-CoV-2 live virus neutralizing titers (VN) from 175 plasma donors. While IgM, IgG and VN responses to the virus remain for at least 100 days DPO, there is a a decline in VN titers at 60 DPO. The research also showed that people 30 years of age or younger have lower VN, IgG and IgM than older patients. Patients with greater disease severity also have significantly higher IgM and IgG antibody titers.

See Nature Communications Biology 24 Feb 2021 for study details.