“Introduction: … While much attention has focused on defining immune reactivity in individuals after infection, other data indicate that many individuals show preexisting SARS-CoV-2 cross-reactive T and B cells without prior exposure to the virus…
Discussion: … The main finding in this study is that, at a population level, the vast majority of adults show anti-body reactivity against SARS-CoV-2 antigens… [I]t is extremely unlikely that this antibody reactivity results from a direct exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, findings of similar antibody reactivity in prepandemic adult sera and from sera obtained from infants younger than 1 year of age confirms that we are detecting genuine cross-reactivity rather than reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 from asymptomatic COVID-19 cases…
In conclusion, this study reveals common preexisting, broadly reactive SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in uninfected adults.”
Published in Volume 6, Issue 8 on April 22, 2021JCI Insight. 2021;6(8):e146316. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.146316.© 2021 Majdoubi et al. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.