Abstract

Virus neutralization remains the gold standard for determining antibody efficacy. Therefore, a high-throughput assay to measure SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies is urgently needed for COVID-19 serodiagnosis, convalescent plasma therapy, and vaccine development. Here, we report on a fluorescence-based SARS-CoV-2 neutralization assay that detects SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies in COVID-19 patient specimens and yields comparable results to plaque reduction neutralizing assay, the gold standard of serological testing. The fluorescence-based neutralization assay is specific to measure COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies without cross reacting with patient specimens with other viral, bacterial, or parasitic infections. Collectively, our approach offers a rapid platform that can be scaled to screen people for antibody protection from COVID-19, a key parameter necessary to safely reopen local communities.

Neutralizing antibody titers in SARS-CoV-2 infected or vaccinated people are an important measure for vaccine development and public health decision-making. Here, the authors develop a fluorescence based SARS-CoV-2 assay to determine neutralizing antibody titers in COVID-19 patient sera in a high throughput set-up.

Details

Title
A high-throughput neutralizing antibody assay for COVID-19 diagnosis and vaccine evaluation
Author
Muruato, Antonio E 1 ; Fontes-Garfias, Camila R 2 ; Ren, Ping 3 ; Garcia-Blanco, Mariano A 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Menachery, Vineet D 5 ; Xie Xuping 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Pei-Yong, Shi 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

1  University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964) 
2  University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964) 
3  University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Pathology, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964) 
4  University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore (GRID:grid.428397.3) (ISNI:0000 0004 0385 0924); University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Internal Medicine, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964) 
5  University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Pathology, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); University of Texas Medical Branch, Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964) 
6  University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); University of Texas Medical Branch, Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); University of Texas Medical Branch, Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); University of Texas Medical Branch, Sealy Center for Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); University of Texas Medical Branch, Institute for Translational Science, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964) 
Publication year
2020
Publication date
2020
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17892-0
ProQuest document ID
2543894436
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. corrected publication 2021. 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.