COVID-19 Antibody Study: The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Victoria Kirsh

Affiliation: Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

Start Year: 2021

CanPath is conducting a COVID-19 Antibody Study. Participants are asked to complete an online questionnaire and provide a dried blood spot sample using a kit mailed to their home. The study is under way in all six regional CanPath cohorts. The questionnaire includes details around vaccination (vaccine availability, willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and vaccination status, along with brand name and date received), previous COVID-19 infection (suspected only, or lab confirmed along with date of positive test), and underlying medical conditions diagnosed in the past year and medications taken. Dried blood spot samples are being tested for three antibodies to COVID-19. Two of these represent an immune response to either prior infection or vaccine and the third represents an immune response to prior infection only. We will determine whether immune response varies by brand of vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca), whether older individuals exhibit a weaker immune response and whether pre-conditions, medical treatments, or host genetics affect immune response. We will also assess the direction and strength of the immune response over time. With the majority of Canadians having received only a single vaccine dose, variation in immune response by type of vaccine has important implications for current public health guidance. Also, it will be important to monitor individuals with pre-conditions and or medical treatments to determine how treatment impacts the development of immunity over time, and to determine whether vaccine efficacy changes as new variants emerge.