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Correspondence: Rick L. Tarleton, Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, Coverdell Center for Biomedical Research, 500 D.W. Brooks Dr, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, (706) 542-3362, tarleton@uga.edu

Author contributions: HS designed the studies, conducted experiments and acquired and analyzed data. DC conducted experiments and provided reagents, DF, KWM, SAH, SMT, NR, SE and TMR provided reagents and edited the manuscript. LW provided reagents. MHC helped design the studies, provided reagents and edited the manuscript. RLT designed the studies, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.

Acknowledgements: We thank the participants who provided blood or sputum specimens that were tested in this study. We thank the faculty and staff team of The Hope Clinic for a dedicated effort in recruiting subjects and collecting specimens and Hannah Hanley and Mitchell Lee for the processing of the serum and saliva samples.

We thank Dr. Yerun Zhu and Dr. Daniel Espinoza for assistance with laboratory operations. We thank Italo Zecca, Lisa Auckland, Edward Davila, Gabriel Hamer, Chris Roundy, and Wendy Tang for collecting samples from pets. Mia Torchetti, Melinda Jenkins Moore, and Katie Mozingo provided virus neutralization testing of animal samples.

Plasmids for expression of SARS-CoV-2 Spike and RBD proteins, as well as CR3022 monoclonal antibody were generously provided by Dr. Florian Krammer (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, produced under NIAID CEIRS contract HHSN272201400008C).

Disclosures: The authors have declared that no conflicts of interest exists.

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Research Funding:

Financial support for this work was provided by grant R01AI125738 to RLT from the National Institutes of Health and a University of Georgia Athletic Association endowment to RLT. S.M.T. and T.M.R. are partially supported by NIAID Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) contract HHSN272201400004C and from the University of Georgia.

T.M.R and LW are also supported, in part, by the Georgia Research Alliance as an Eminent Scholar and a Distinguished Investigator, respectively. Additional support for specimen collection and processing of samples in cohort 2 was provided by the Georgia Emerging Infections Program, which was funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Emerging Infections Program [U50CK000485].

Pet dog and cat samples were collected with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention RFP 75D 301-20-R-68167.

Keywords:

  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Tropical Medicine
  • Emerging global diseases
  • Immunology
  • Vaccines
  • Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology

A flexible, pan-species, multi-antigen platform for the detection and monitoring of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody responses.

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medRxiv

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Article | Preprint: Prior to Peer Review

Abstract:

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the vaccination effort that is ongoing has created an unmet need for accessible, affordable, flexible and precise platforms for monitoring the induction, specificity and maintenance of virus-specific immune responses. Herein we validate a multiplex (Luminex-based) assay capable of detecting SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies irrespective of host species, antibody isotype, and specimen type (e.g. plasma, serum, saliva or blood spots). The well-established precision of Luminex-based assays provides the ability to follow changes in antibody levels over time to many antigens, including multiple permutations of the most common SARS-CoV-2 antigens. This platform can easily measure antibodies known to correlate with neutralization activity as well as multiple non-SARS-CoV-2 antigens such as vaccines ( e . g . Tetanus toxoid) or those from frequently encountered agents (influenza), which serve as stable reference points for quantifying the changing SARS-specific responses. All of the antigens utilized in our study can be made in-house, many in E. coli using readily available plasmids. Commercially sourced antigens may also be incorporated and newly available antigen variants can be rapidly produced and integrated, making the platform adaptable to the evolving viral strains in this pandemic. BRIEF SUMMARY: A multi-antigen assay for monitoring SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies irrespective of host species, antibody isotype, and specimen type was developed.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.

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