A multiplex serological assay for the characterization of IgG immune response to SARS-CoV-2

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 13;17(1):e0262311. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262311. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

In the fight against SARS-COV-2, the development of serological assays based on different antigenic domains represent a versatile tool to get a comprehensive picture of the immune response or differentiate infection from vaccination beyond simple diagnosis. Here we use a combination of the Nucleoprotein (NP), the Spike 1 (S1) and Spike 2 (S2) subunits, and the receptor binding domain (RBD) and N-terminal domain (NTD) of the Spike antigens from the CoViDiag® multiplex IgG assay, to follow the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection over a long time period and depending on disease severity. Using a panel of 209 sera collected from 61 patients up to eight months after infection, we observed that most patients develop an immune response against multiple viral epitope, but anti-S2 antibodies seemed to last longer. For all the tested IgGs, we have found higher responses for hospitalized patients than for non-hospitalized ones. Moreover the combination of the five different IgG responses increased the correlation to the neutralizing antibody titers than if considered individually. Multiplex immunoassays have the potential to improve diagnostic performances, especially for ancient infection or mild form of the disease presenting weaker antibody responses. Also the combined detection of anti-NP and anti-Spike-derived domains can be useful to differentiate vaccination from viral infection and accurately assess the antibody potential to neutralize the virus.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Antibodies, Neutralizing / immunology
  • Antibodies, Viral / immunology
  • COVID-19 / immunology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Immunity / immunology*
  • Immunoassay / methods
  • Immunoglobulin G / immunology*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • SARS-CoV-2 / immunology*
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus / immunology

Substances

  • Antibodies, Neutralizing
  • Antibodies, Viral
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus

Grants and funding

EB is employee of the Amiens University Hospital. RM, GE and CA are employees of GD Biotech, while PP, PF, VS and CO are employees of Innobiochips. GD Biotech and Innobiochips provided support in the form of salaries for authors RM, GE, CA, PP, PF, VS and CO, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. Innobiochips also provided the CoViDiag® assay kits for this study in the form research material.