Transfusion . High-throughput detection of antibodies targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Spike in longitudinal convalescent plasma samples

[tetano]

Transfusion


. 2021 Feb 18.
doi: 10.1111/trf.16318. Online ahead of print.
High-throughput detection of antibodies targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Spike in longitudinal convalescent plasma samples


Sai Priya Anand ^{# 1 2} , J?r?mie Pr?vost ^{# 1 3} , Jonathan Richard ^{# 1 3} , Jos?e Perreault ⁴ , Tony Tremblay ⁴ , Mathieu Drouin ⁴ , Marie-Jos?e Fournier ⁴ , Antoine Lewin ⁴ , Ren?e Bazin ⁴ , Andr?s Finzi ^{1 2 3}



Affiliations

• PMID: 33604922
• DOI: 10.1111/trf.16318

Abstract

Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus is the cause of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, infecting millions of people and causing more than two million deaths. The SARS-CoV-2 Spike glycoproteins mediate viral entry and represent the main target for antibody responses. Humoral responses were shown to be important for preventing and controlling infection by coronaviruses. A promising approach to reduce the severity of COVID-19 is the transfusion of convalescent plasma. However, longitudinal studies revealed that the level of antibodies targeting the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike declines rapidly after the resolution of the infection.
Study design and methods: To extend this observation beyond the RBD domain, we performed a longitudinal analysis of the persistence of antibodies targeting the full-length SARS-CoV-2 Spike in the plasma from 15 convalescent donors. We generated a 293T cell line constitutively expressing the SARS-CoV-2 Spike and used it to develop a high-throughput flow cytometry-based assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 Spike-specific antibodies in the plasma of convalescent donors.
Results and conclusion: We found that the level of antibodies targeting the full-length SARS-CoV-2 Spike declines gradually after the resolution of the infection. This decline was not related to the number of donations but strongly correlated with the decline of RBD-specific antibodies and the number of days post-symptom onset. These findings help to better understand the decline of humoral responses against the SARS-CoV-2 Spike and provide important information on when to collect plasma after recovery from active infection for convalescent plasma transfusion.

Keywords: COVID-19; RBD; SARS-CoV-2; antibodies; convalescent plasma; coronavirus; flow cytometry; high-throughput screening; spike glycoproteins.