Abstract
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many studies have investigated the humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 during infection. Studies with native viral proteins constitute a first-line approach to assessing the overall immune response, but small peptides are an accurate and valuable tool for the fine characterization of B-cell epitopes, despite the restriction of this approach to the determination of linear epitopes. In this study, we used ELISA and peptides covering a selection of structural and non-structural SARS-CoV-2 proteins to identify key epitopes eliciting a strong immune response that could serve as a biological signature of disease characteristics, such as severity, in particular. We used 213 plasma samples from a cohort of patients well-characterized clinically and biologically and followed for COVID-19 infection. We found that patients developing severe disease had higher titers of antibodies mapping to multiple specific epitopes than patients with mild to moderate disease. These data are potentially important as they could be used for immunological profiling to improve our knowledge of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the humoral response in relation to patient outcome.
Highlights
In December 2019, cases of atypical pneumonia were reported in Wuhan, China
The other comorbid conditions were evenly distributed between disease severity groups
Among patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), the percentage of patients with comorbidity factors was high, whatever the comorbid conditions considered
Summary
In December 2019, cases of atypical pneumonia were reported in Wuhan, China. The unknown etiologic agent was later identified as a new coronavirus displaying 79.6% of genomic sequence identity to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARSCoV) [1]. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an enveloped, single-stranded positive sense RNA virus from the genus Betacoronavirus [2]. The main manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection include respiratory symptoms, systemic inflammation leading to multi-organ dysfunction, such as acute respiratory distress syndrome, cardiovascular disorders and neurological symptoms [3,4,5,6]. The viral genome encodes four main structural proteins—spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M) and nucleocapsid (N)—essential for virion assembly and infection. Spike is the outermost protein on the surface of the virus It contains a receptor-binding domain (RBD) that interacts with the host receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), to mediate viral entry into cells [8]. The N protein packages the RNA of the viral genome and participates in virion assembly through its interaction with the M protein [12]. The N proteins of many coronaviruses are highly immunogenic and produced in abundance in virus-infected cells [13]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
