Surrogate Virus Neutralisation Test Based on Nanoluciferase-Tagged Antigens to Quantify Inhibitory Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and Characterise Omicron-Specific Reactivity in a Vaccination Cohort

Virus-specific antibodies are crucial for protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2. Assessing functional antibodies through conventional or pseudotyped virus neutralisation tests (pVNT) requires high biosafety levels. Alternatively, the virus-free surrogate virus neutralisation test (sVNT) quantifies...

Verfasser: Schöfbänker, Michael
Neddermeyer, Rieke
Guenther, Theresa
Mueller, Marlin M.
Romberg, Marie-Luise
Classen, Nica
Hennies, Marc Tim
Hrincius, Eike-Roman
Ludwig, Stephan
Kühn, Joachim
Lorentzen, Eva Ulla
FB/Einrichtung:FB 13: Biologie
FB 05: Medizinische Fakultät
Dokumenttypen:Artikel
Medientypen:Text
Erscheinungsdatum:2023
Publikation in MIAMI:12.12.2023
Datum der letzten Änderung:11.03.2024
Angaben zur Ausgabe:[Electronic ed.]
Quelle:Vaccines 11 (2023) 12, 1832, 1-16
Schlagwörter:SARS-CoV-2; Omicron BA.1; surrogate virus neutralisation test; pseudotyped virus neutralisation test; antibody quantification; nanoluciferase; vaccination study
Fachgebiet (DDC):610: Medizin und Gesundheit
Lizenz:CC BY 4.0
Sprache:English
Förderung:Finanziert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds der Universität Münster.
Förderer: Ministerium für Arbeit, Gesundheit und Soziales des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen / Projektnummer: CPS-1-1G
Format:PDF-Dokument
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-48928749938
Weitere Identifikatoren:DOI: 10.17879/48928751679
Permalink:https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-48928749938
Verwandte Dokumente:
  • ist identisch zu:
  • Onlinezugriff:10.3390_vaccines11121832.pdf

    Virus-specific antibodies are crucial for protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2. Assessing functional antibodies through conventional or pseudotyped virus neutralisation tests (pVNT) requires high biosafety levels. Alternatively, the virus-free surrogate virus neutralisation test (sVNT) quantifies antibodies interfering with spike binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. We evaluated secreted nanoluciferase-tagged spike protein fragments as diagnostic antigens in the sVNT in a vaccination cohort. Initially, spike fragments were tested in a capture enzyme immunoassay (EIA), identifying the receptor binding domain (RBD) as the optimal diagnostic antigen. The sensitivity of the inhouse sVNT applying the nanoluciferase-labelled RBD equalled or surpassed that of a commercial sVNT (cPass, GenScript Diagnostics) and an in-house pVNT four weeks after the first vaccination (98% vs. 94% and 72%, respectively), reaching 100% in all assays four weeks after the second and third vaccinations. When testing serum reactivity with Omicron BA.1 spike, the sVNT and pVNT displayed superior discrimination between wild-type- and variant-specific serum reactivity compared to a capture EIA. This was most pronounced after the first and second vaccinations, with the third vaccination resulting in robust, cross-reactive BA.1 construct detection. In conclusion, utilising nanoluciferase-labelled antigens permits the quantification of SARS-CoV-2-specific inhibitory antibodies. Designed as flexible modular systems, the assays can be readily adjusted for monitoring vaccine efficacy.