What does your result mean?
If you are exposed to the virus, your body will see the virus as foreign and it will mount an immune response to fight the virus by developing antibodies that are directed at the two different proteins that make up the SARS-CoV-2 virus:
- Nuceocapsid protein
- Spike protein
There are two different tests that test for antibodies:
- Antibodies developed through exposure
- Antibodies developed through vaccination.
If you have only been vaccinated you should have developed anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies to the spike protein only, but if you have been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, you will develop antibodies to both proteins.
We also now know that those antibodies developed through both exposure or vaccination are not 100% protective, and re-infections and vaccine breakthrough infections occur, and we would like to try and understand how often this happens.
Because you are a very frequent blood donor, we are able to test each of your blood donations for both types of antibodies, to see how often this occurs.
If your result is Anti-Nuceocapsid positive, it means you developed antibodies through exposure
If your result is Anti-spike, it means you developed antibodies through either exposure or vaccination