Improving SARS-CoV-2 variants monitoring in the absence of genomic surveillance capabilities: a serological study in Bolivian blood donors in October 2021 and June 2022
Background: Unlike genomic data, serological data have not been previously leveraged to evaluate the SARS-CoV-2 variants circulation. In Bolivia, sustained genomic surveillance capacities were lacking, especially at the beginning of the pandemic. Methods: In 2021 and 2022 we estimated the prevalence...
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2025-07-01
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| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/94475 |
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| author | Lucia Inchauste Elif Nurtop Lissete Bautista Machicado Yanine Leigue Roth Shirley Lenz Gonzales Maria Luisa Herrera Katty Mina Villafan Pedro Mamani Mamani Marcelo Ramos Espinoza Juan Carlos Pavel Suarez Juan Cansio Garcia Copa Yitzhak Leigue Zabala Etzel Arancibia Cardozo Pierre Gallian Xavier de Lamballerie Stéphane Priet |
| author_facet | Lucia Inchauste Elif Nurtop Lissete Bautista Machicado Yanine Leigue Roth Shirley Lenz Gonzales Maria Luisa Herrera Katty Mina Villafan Pedro Mamani Mamani Marcelo Ramos Espinoza Juan Carlos Pavel Suarez Juan Cansio Garcia Copa Yitzhak Leigue Zabala Etzel Arancibia Cardozo Pierre Gallian Xavier de Lamballerie Stéphane Priet |
| author_sort | Lucia Inchauste |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Unlike genomic data, serological data have not been previously leveraged to evaluate the SARS-CoV-2 variants circulation. In Bolivia, sustained genomic surveillance capacities were lacking, especially at the beginning of the pandemic.
Methods: In 2021 and 2022 we estimated the prevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Bolivian blood donors and explored the feasibility of using virus serum neutralization data for variants thought to have circulated to map their circulation across all departments over a year-long follow-up period. Anti-S1 and anti-NCP SARS-CoV-2 IgGs were studied, along with virus neutralization tests for ancestral-D614G, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron BA.1 lineages of SARS-CoV-2.
Results: Between 2021 and 2022, the overall prevalence of anti-S1 and anti-NCP antibodies increased, reaching values over 90%, demonstrating that a large proportion of the Bolivian population was no longer naïve to the virus. Viral neutralization data, analyzed through multiple approaches, revealed the spread of the Gamma variant up to 2021, particularly impacting northern departments. In 2022, Gamma continued to circulate in southernmost departments of the country, and the emergence of Omicron BA.1 was detected. These trends align with publicly available genomic data from neighboring countries.
Conclusions: Our serological analyses successfully identified both new antigenic groups, such as Omicron BA.1, and individual variants related to previously circulating groups, such as Delta. The study contributes insights into overall population immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and variant-specific immunity levels across different regions of Bolivia. It also emphasizes the potency of seroprevalence studies in informing public health decisions and underscores their value in capturing the initial phases of emerging epidemics when variant diversity is limited, facilitating timely genomic surveillance setup.
Funding: This study was supported by the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), the project EMERGEN-PRI #22275 of the ANRS I MIE (INSERM), and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (European Virus Archive Global, grant agreement No. 871029). The funders of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6fee81b21a7a4bc0a441305887d9c53f |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
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| spelling | doaj-art-6fee81b21a7a4bc0a441305887d9c53f2025-08-20T03:12:51ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2025-07-011310.7554/eLife.94475Improving SARS-CoV-2 variants monitoring in the absence of genomic surveillance capabilities: a serological study in Bolivian blood donors in October 2021 and June 2022Lucia Inchauste0Elif Nurtop1Lissete Bautista Machicado2Yanine Leigue Roth3Shirley Lenz Gonzales4Maria Luisa Herrera5Katty Mina Villafan6Pedro Mamani Mamani7Marcelo Ramos Espinoza8Juan Carlos Pavel Suarez9Juan Cansio Garcia Copa10Yitzhak Leigue Zabala11Etzel Arancibia Cardozo12Pierre Gallian13Xavier de Lamballerie14Stéphane Priet15https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7102-3654Unité des Virus Émergents, Marseille, FranceUnité des Virus Émergents, Marseille, FrancePrograma Nacional de Sangre, Ministerio de Salud y Deportes, La Paz, BoliviaBanco de Sangre de Referencia Departmental de Beni, Beni, BoliviaBanco de Sangre de Referencia Departmental de Chuquisaca, Sucre, BoliviaBanco de Sangre de Referencia Departmental de Cochabamba, Cochabamba, BoliviaBanco de Sangre de Referencia Departmental de El Alto, El Alto, BoliviaBanco de Sangre de Referencia Departmental de La Paz, La Paz, BoliviaBanco de Sangre de Referencia Departmental de Oruro, Oruro, BoliviaBanco de Sangre de Referencia Departmental de Pando, Pando, BoliviaBanco de Sangre de Referencia Departmental de Potosí, Potosí, BoliviaBanco de Sangre de Referencia Departmental de Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, BoliviaBanco de Sangre de Referencia Departmental de Tarija, Tarija, BoliviaUnité des Virus Émergents, Marseille, France; Etablissement Français du Sang, La Plaine Saint Denis, FranceUnité des Virus Émergents, Marseille, FranceUnité des Virus Émergents, Marseille, FranceBackground: Unlike genomic data, serological data have not been previously leveraged to evaluate the SARS-CoV-2 variants circulation. In Bolivia, sustained genomic surveillance capacities were lacking, especially at the beginning of the pandemic. Methods: In 2021 and 2022 we estimated the prevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Bolivian blood donors and explored the feasibility of using virus serum neutralization data for variants thought to have circulated to map their circulation across all departments over a year-long follow-up period. Anti-S1 and anti-NCP SARS-CoV-2 IgGs were studied, along with virus neutralization tests for ancestral-D614G, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron BA.1 lineages of SARS-CoV-2. Results: Between 2021 and 2022, the overall prevalence of anti-S1 and anti-NCP antibodies increased, reaching values over 90%, demonstrating that a large proportion of the Bolivian population was no longer naïve to the virus. Viral neutralization data, analyzed through multiple approaches, revealed the spread of the Gamma variant up to 2021, particularly impacting northern departments. In 2022, Gamma continued to circulate in southernmost departments of the country, and the emergence of Omicron BA.1 was detected. These trends align with publicly available genomic data from neighboring countries. Conclusions: Our serological analyses successfully identified both new antigenic groups, such as Omicron BA.1, and individual variants related to previously circulating groups, such as Delta. The study contributes insights into overall population immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and variant-specific immunity levels across different regions of Bolivia. It also emphasizes the potency of seroprevalence studies in informing public health decisions and underscores their value in capturing the initial phases of emerging epidemics when variant diversity is limited, facilitating timely genomic surveillance setup. Funding: This study was supported by the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), the project EMERGEN-PRI #22275 of the ANRS I MIE (INSERM), and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (European Virus Archive Global, grant agreement No. 871029). The funders of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report.https://elifesciences.org/articles/94475SARS-CoV-2surveillancevariant circulationpublic health |
| spellingShingle | Lucia Inchauste Elif Nurtop Lissete Bautista Machicado Yanine Leigue Roth Shirley Lenz Gonzales Maria Luisa Herrera Katty Mina Villafan Pedro Mamani Mamani Marcelo Ramos Espinoza Juan Carlos Pavel Suarez Juan Cansio Garcia Copa Yitzhak Leigue Zabala Etzel Arancibia Cardozo Pierre Gallian Xavier de Lamballerie Stéphane Priet Improving SARS-CoV-2 variants monitoring in the absence of genomic surveillance capabilities: a serological study in Bolivian blood donors in October 2021 and June 2022 eLife SARS-CoV-2 surveillance variant circulation public health |
| title | Improving SARS-CoV-2 variants monitoring in the absence of genomic surveillance capabilities: a serological study in Bolivian blood donors in October 2021 and June 2022 |
| title_full | Improving SARS-CoV-2 variants monitoring in the absence of genomic surveillance capabilities: a serological study in Bolivian blood donors in October 2021 and June 2022 |
| title_fullStr | Improving SARS-CoV-2 variants monitoring in the absence of genomic surveillance capabilities: a serological study in Bolivian blood donors in October 2021 and June 2022 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improving SARS-CoV-2 variants monitoring in the absence of genomic surveillance capabilities: a serological study in Bolivian blood donors in October 2021 and June 2022 |
| title_short | Improving SARS-CoV-2 variants monitoring in the absence of genomic surveillance capabilities: a serological study in Bolivian blood donors in October 2021 and June 2022 |
| title_sort | improving sars cov 2 variants monitoring in the absence of genomic surveillance capabilities a serological study in bolivian blood donors in october 2021 and june 2022 |
| topic | SARS-CoV-2 surveillance variant circulation public health |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/94475 |
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