Abstract
In order to control the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, serious progress has been made to identify infected patients and to detect patients with a positive immune response against the virus. Currently, attempts to generate a vaccine against the coronavirus are ongoing. To understand SARS-CoV-2 immunoreactivity, we compared the IgG antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 in infected versus control patients by dot blot using recombinant viral particle proteins: N (Nucleocapsid), M (Membrane) and S (Spike). In addition, we used different protein fragments of the N and S protein to map immune epitopes. Most of the COVID-19 patients presented a specific immune response against the full length and fragments of the N protein and, to lesser extent, against a fragment containing amino acids 300-685 of the S protein. In contrast, immunoreactivity against other S protein fragments or the M protein was low. This response is specific for COVID-19 patients as very few of the control patients displayed immunoreactivity, likely reflecting an immune response against other coronaviruses. Altogether, our results may help develop method(s) for measuring COVID-19 antibody response, selectivity of methods detecting such SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and vaccine development.
Keywords: COVID-19; Immunotest; Membrane protein; Nucleocapsid protein; SARS-CoV-2; Spike protein.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Spike protein, nucleocapsid protein, membrane protein, Immunotest, 【초록키워드】 Vaccine, Vaccine development, coronavirus, immune response, S protein, spike, SARS-COV-2 infection, COVID-19 pandemic, Antibody Response, virus, immune, Spike protein, nucleocapsid protein, M protein, Protein, Epitopes, SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, IgG antibody, Viral, SARS-CoV-2 antibody, nucleocapsid, membrane protein, Patient, N protein, amino acids, membrane, selectivity, COVID-19 antibody, COVID-19 patients, Amino acid, COVID-19 patient, dot blot, infected patients, other coronaviruses, control patients, fragment, help, immunoreactivity, positive, full length, viral particle, MOST, positive immune response, identify, detect, develop, caused, addition, generate, infected patient, the S protein, the N protein, control patient, 【제목키워드】 Protein, humoral immune response, COVID-19 patient, Trigger,