Seoul National University · Medicine
Professor Pyoeng Gyun Choe's research lab specializes in virology and immunology, with a primary focus on understanding the kinetics and durability of humoral immune responses to emerging coronaviruses, including MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. The lab investigates neutralizing and spike protein-specific antibody responses in diverse patient cohorts—ranging from asymptomatic to severely ill individuals—providing critical insights into seropositivity, waning immunity, and the reliability of serologic testing. Their work contributes significantly to pandemic preparedness, vaccine evaluation, and serological surveillance strategies. The lab also explores the correlation between viral load, disease severity, and antibody titers, enhancing our understanding of immune correlates of protection.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
We investigated the kinetics of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) neutralizing and spike protein antibody titers over the course of 1 year in 11 patients who were confirmed by reverse transcription PCR to have been infected during the outbreak in South Korea in 2015. Robust antibody responses were detected in all survivors who had severe disease; responses remained detectable, albeit with some waning, for <1 year. The duration of viral RNA detection (but not viral load)
We investigated the kinetics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 neutralizing antibodies in 7 asymptomatic persons and 11 patients with pneumonia. The geometric mean titer of neutralizing antibodies declined from 219.4 at 2 months to 143.7 at 5 months after infection, indicating a waning antibody response.
Waning humoral immunity in coronavirus disease patients has raised concern over usefulness of serologic testing. We investigated antibody responses of 58 persons 8 months after asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. For 3 of 4 immunoassays used, seropositivity rates were high (69.0%-91.4%).
We compared levels of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 neutralizing antibodies in recovery plasma from 7 completely asymptomatic coronavirus disease patients with those in symptomatic patients in South Korea. We found that serologic diagnostic testing was positive for 71% (5/7) of completely asymptomatic patients, but neutralizing antibody response occurred in all 7 patients.
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