Abstract

Profiling of the antibody responses to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) proteins in African populations is scarce. Here, we performed a detailed IgM and IgG epitope mapping study against 487 peptides covering SARS-CoV-2 wild-type structural proteins. A panel of 41 pre-pandemic and 82 COVID-19 RT-PCR confirmed sera from Madagascar and Senegal were used. We found that the main 36 immunodominant linear epitopes identified were (i) similar in both countries, (ii) distributed mainly in the Spike and the Nucleocapsid proteins, (iii) located outside the RBD and NTD regions where most of the reported SARS-CoV-2 variant mutations occur, and (iv) identical to those reported in European, North American, and Asian studies. Within the severe group, antibody levels were inversely correlated with the viral load. This first antibody epitope mapping study performed in patients from two African countries may be helpful to guide rational peptide-based diagnostic assays or vaccine development.

Details

Title
Linear epitope mapping of the humoral response against SARS-CoV-2 in two independent African cohorts
Author
Vigan-Womas, Inès 1 ; Spadoni, Jean-Louis 2 ; Poiret, Thomas 1 ; Taïeb, Fabien 3 ; Randrianarisaona, Fanirisoa 4 ; Faye, Rokhaya 1 ; Mbow, Adji Astou 1 ; Gaye, Aboubacry 3 ; Dia, Ndongo 5 ; Loucoubar, Cheikh 3 ; Ny Mioramalala, Diary Juliannie 4 ; Ratovoson, Rila 4 ; Randremanana, Rindra Vatosoa 4 ; Sall, Amadou Alpha 1 ; Seydi, Moussa 6 ; Noirel, Josselin 2 ; Moreau, Gabriel 7 ; Simon, Arnaud 2 ; Holenya, Pavlo 8 ; Meyniel, Jean-Philippe 9 ; Zagury, Jean-François 2 ; Schoenhals, Matthieu 4 

 Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Immunophysiopathology and Infectious Diseases Department, Dakar, Senegal (GRID:grid.418508.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 1956 9596) 
 Hesam Université, Laboratoire Génomique, Bioinformatique, et Chimie Moléculaire, EA7528, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France (GRID:grid.498415.5) 
 Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Epidemiology, Clinical Research and Data Science Department, Dakar, Senegal (GRID:grid.418508.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 1956 9596) 
 Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Antananarivo, Madagascar (GRID:grid.418511.8) (ISNI:0000 0004 0552 7303) 
 Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Virology Department, Dakar, Senegal (GRID:grid.418508.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 1956 9596) 
 Fann University Hospital Center, Service des Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales, Dakar, Senegal (GRID:grid.418508.0) 
 Hôpital Cochin, Bioinformatics Team, Peptinov, Paris, France (GRID:grid.411784.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0274 3893) 
 JPT Peptide Technologies GmbH, Berlin, Germany (GRID:grid.435562.3) 
 ISoft, Bioinformatics Department, Saint-Aubin, France (GRID:grid.435562.3) 
Pages
782
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2765886905
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.