Epidemiological and immunological features of obesity and SARS-CoV-2

Eric J Nilles; Sameed M Siddiqui; Stephanie Fischinger; Yannic C Bartsch; Michael de Saint Aubin; Guohai Zhou; Matthew J Gluck; Samuel Berger; Justin Rhee; Eric Petersen; Benjamin Mormann; Michael Loesche; Zhilin Chen; Jingyou Yu; Makda Gebre; Caroline Atyeo; Matthew J Gorman; Alex Lee Zhu; John Burke; Matthew Slein; Mohammad A Hasdianda; Guruprasad Jambaulikar; Edward Boyer; Pardis Sabeti; Dan H Barouch; Boris D Julg; Adam J Kucharski; Elon R Musk; Douglas A Lauffenburger; Galit Alter; Anil S Menon

doi:10.1101/2020.11.11.20229724

Epidemiological and immunological features of obesity and SARS-CoV-2

medRxiv [Preprint]. 2020 Dec 11:2020.11.11.20229724. doi: 10.1101/2020.11.11.20229724.

Authors

Eric J Nilles^{1

2

3

4}, Sameed M Siddiqui^{5

6}, Stephanie Fischinger⁷, Yannic C Bartsch⁷, Michael de Saint Aubin³, Guohai Zhou^{1

2}, Matthew J Gluck^{8

9}, Samuel Berger⁸, Justin Rhee⁸, Eric Petersen⁸, Benjamin Mormann^{1

8}, Michael Loesche^{1

8}, Zhilin Chen⁷, Jingyou Yu^{7

10}, Makda Gebre^{7

10}, Caroline Atyeo⁷, Matthew J Gorman⁷, Alex Lee Zhu⁷, John Burke⁷, Matthew Slein⁷, Mohammad A Hasdianda^{1

2}, Guruprasad Jambaulikar^{1

2}, Edward Boyer^{1

2}, Pardis Sabeti^{4

6

10

11}, Dan H Barouch^{6

12}, Boris D Julg⁶, Adam J Kucharski¹³, Elon R Musk⁸, Douglas A Lauffenburger¹⁴, Galit Alter^{4

6}, Anil S Menon⁸

Affiliations

¹ Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.
² Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
³ Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Boston, MA.
⁴ Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, Boston, MA.
⁵ Computational and Systems Biology Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
⁶ Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA.
⁷ Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA.
⁸ Space Exploration Technologies Corp, Hawthorne, CA.
⁹ Icahn School of Medicine- Mount Sinai, New York, NY.
¹⁰ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
¹¹ Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD.
¹² Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
¹³ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London.
¹⁴ Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

Abstract

Obesity is a key correlate of severe SARS-CoV-2 outcomes while the role of obesity on risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, symptom phenotype, and immune response are poorly defined. We examined data from a prospective SARS-CoV-2 cohort study to address these questions. Serostatus, body mass index, demographics, comorbidities, and prior COVID-19 compatible symptoms were assessed at baseline and serostatus and symptoms monthly thereafter. SARS-CoV-2 immunoassays included an IgG ELISA targeting the spike RBD, multiarray Luminex targeting 20 viral antigens, pseudovirus neutralization, and T cell ELISPOT assays. Our results from a large prospective SARS-CoV-2 cohort study indicate symptom phenotype is strongly influenced by obesity among younger but not older age groups; we did not identify evidence to suggest obese individuals are at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection; and, remarkably homogenous immune activity across BMI categories suggests natural- and vaccine-induced protection may be similar across these groups.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; epidemiology; immunity; obesity.

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