Fig. 4 |. Early neutralizing antibodies correlate with better COVID-19 clinical trajectory.

Patient stratification by early NAb capacity, based on levels of anti-S IgG, PRNT₅₀ titers and days from symptom onset. a, Cohort overview by IgG anti-S titers (three external circles) and NAb production (internal circle). Frequency of patients in each level is indicated in light gray. Frequency of early and late neutralizers stratified based on days from symptom onset at 1:90 dilution is indicated in black. *Frequency of patients with NAb capacity over the disease course in patients with high levels of anti-S IgG. b, Distribution of age, BMI and frequency of males and females between early (>50% neutralization activity in 1:90 titer before day 14 after symptom onset) or late (<50% neutralization activity in 1:90 titer before day 14 after symptom onset) neutralizers, as determined in a. c, Disease progression measured by clinical severity score for patients in each group. The lines represent the mean ± s.e.m for each group and are ordered by the collection time points for each patient, with regular collection intervals of 3–4 d. Shade represents 95% CI and is colored accordingly. d, Percentage of mortality in each group (early neutralizers, n = 27; late neutralizers, n = 45). e, Viral load measured by nasopharyngeal (Np) swabs plotted as log₁₀ of genome equivalents (GEs) in early and late neutralizers (early neutralizers, n = 21; late neutralizers, n = 28). Each dot represents a single individual at their maximum antibody titer over the disease course. Box analysis with minimum and maximum represented for each group. Horizontal bar indicates mean values. Significance was accessed using unpaired t-test. *P (two-tailed) = 0.0467. CI, confidence interval.