Abstract
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple waves of SARS-CoV-2 variants have emerged. Of particular concern is the omicron variant, which harbors 28 mutations in the spike glycoprotein receptor binding and N-terminal domains relative to the ancestral strain. The high mutability of SARS-CoV-2 therefore poses significant hurdles for development of universal assays that rely on spike-specific immune detection. To address this, more conserved viral antigens need to be targeted. In this work, we comprehensively demonstrate the use of nucleocapsid (N)-specific detection across several assays using previously described nanobodies C2 and E2. We show that these nanobodies are highly sensitive and can detect divergent SARS-CoV-2 ancestral, delta and omicron variants across several assays. By comparison, spike-specific antibodies S309 and CR3022 only disparately detect SARS-CoV-2 variant targets. As such, we conclude that N-specific detection could provide a standardized universal target for detection of current and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.
Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; diagnostics; immunoassays; immunofluorescence; immunoplaque assay; nanobody; nucleocapsid.
【저자키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, diagnostics, immunoassays, nanobody, immunofluorescence, immunoplaque assay, nucleocapsid., 【초록키워드】 Mutation, COVID-19 pandemic, spike glycoprotein, SARS-CoV-2 variant, Omicron variants, immune, immunoassays, Viral, nanobody, SARS-CoV-2 variants, nucleocapsid, Omicron variant, mutability, targets, immunofluorescence, specific antibodies, N-terminal domain, Receptor binding, CR3022, S309, Viral antigen, viral antigens, spike-specific antibodies, Spike-specific antibody, described, detect, conserved, assays, 【제목키워드】 detection, Specific,