Linear B-cell epitopes in the spike and nucleocapsid proteins as markers of SARS-CoV-2 exposure and disease severity

EBioMedicine

卷:58

Surinder Pada¹  Anthony Torres-Ruesta²  Chek Meng Poh³  Siew-Wai Fong⁴  David C. Lye⁵  Shirin Kalimuddin⁵  Cheryl Yi-Pin Lee⁵  Jenny Guek-Hong Low⁵  Louisa Jin Sun⁵  Lisa F.P. Ng⁵  Nicholas Kim-Wah Yeo⁵  Yi-Hao Chan⁵  Zi Wei Chang⁶  Rhonda Sin-Ling Chee⁷  Siti Naqiah Amrun⁷  Matthew Zirui Tay⁷  Bernett Lee⁷  Paul A. Tambyah⁷  Yee-Sin Leo⁷  Mark I-Cheng Chen⁷  Laurent Renia⁷  Seow-Yen Tan⁷  Barnaby Edward Young⁸  Guillaume Carissimo⁹ 

[1] Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore;

[2] Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore;

[3] Department of Infectious Diseases, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, 11 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore 308433, Singapore;

[4] Infectious Diseases Horizontal Technology Centre (ID HTC), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 8A Biomedical Grove, Immunos 04-06, Biopolis, Singapore 138648, Singapore;

[5] Laboratory of Microbial Immunity, Singapore Immunology Network, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 8A Biomedical Grove, Immunos 04-06, Biopolis, Singapore 138648, Singapore;

[6] Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, 11 Mandalay Road, Singapore 308232, Singapore;

[7] National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 16 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore 308442, Singapore;

关键词: Epitopes;    SARS-CoV-2;    COVID-19;    Patients;    Biomarkers;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: Given the unceasing worldwide surge in COVID-19 cases, there is an imperative need to develop highly specific and sensitive serology assays to define exposure to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Methods: Pooled plasma samples from PCR positive COVID-19 patients were used to identify linear B-cell epitopes from a SARS-CoV-2 peptide library of spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M), and nucleocapsid (N) structural proteins by peptide-based ELISA. Hit epitopes were further validated with 79 COVID-19 patients with different disease severity status, 13 seasonal human CoV, 20 recovered SARS patients and 22 healthy donors. Findings: Four immunodominant epitopes, S14P5, S20P2, S21P2 and N4P5, were identified on the S and N viral proteins. IgG responses to all identified epitopes displayed a strong detection profile, with N4P5 achieving the highest level of specificity (100%) and sensitivity (>96%) against SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, the magnitude of IgG responses to S14P5, S21P2 and N4P5 were strongly associated with disease severity. Interpretation: IgG responses to the peptide epitopes can serve as useful indicators for the degree of immunopathology in COVID-19 patients, and function as higly specific and sensitive sero-immunosurveillance tools for recent or past SARS-CoV-2 infections. The flexibility of these epitopes to be used alone or in combination will allow for the development of improved point-of-care-tests (POCTs). Funding: Biomedical Research Council (BMRC), the A*ccelerate GAP-funded project (ACCL/19-GAP064-R20H-H) from Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and National Medical Research Council (NMRC) COVID-19 Research fund (COVID19RF-001) and CCGSFPOR20002. ATR is supported by the Singapore International Graduate Award (SINGA), A*STAR.

【 授权许可】

Unknown