Abstract
Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic renewed attention has been directed towards viral neutralization assays and neutralizing antibodies quantification, for vaccine pre-clinical trials and determining vaccine efficacy over time. The gold standard to assess antibody titer is the plaque reduction neutralization test, an end-point assay which evaluates the highest serum antibody dilution that neutralizes viral replication, by inspecting the cytopathic effect induced on cell cultures. Here, we use planar, PEDOT:PSS-based organic electrochemical transistors for real-time, remote-controlled, reliable and fast electrical monitoring of the cytopathic effect induced by SARS29 CoV-2 on Vero E6 cell lines, allowing the quantification of serum neutralizing titer. Our low-cost and scalable device has the potential to speed-up large-scale viral neutralization screening without the need for cancerous staining or highly specialized operators. Finally, the technology could be easily transferred to assess neutralizing antibody response towards different viruses in their permissive cell substrates.
Highlights
Due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 pandemic renewed attention has been directed towards viral neutralization assays and neutralizing antibodies quantification, for vaccine pre-clinical trials and determining vaccine efficacy over time
Planar Pedot:Pss-based Organic Electrochemical Transistors (OECTs) were employed in this work, since we proved their high sensitivity to cell tissue disruption/stress, once incubated with a toxic agent[27]
The OECTs work in real-time, as in vitro, cell tissue integrity sensors, remotely monitoring the cell layer health during growth to discriminate between viralinfected and viral-neutralized cell cultures
Summary
Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic renewed attention has been directed towards viral neutralization assays and neutralizing antibodies quantification, for vaccine pre-clinical trials and determining vaccine efficacy over time. Antibodies may suppress SARS-CoV-2 replication through viral neutralization, but they may participate in COVID-19 pathogenesis and progression through a process termed antibody-dependent enhancement[4,5]. For this reason, there is a significant and urgent need of assessing the presence of neutralizing antibodies, produced during SARS-CoV-2 infection, for prognostic purposes in clinical practice. The harmonization of neutralizing antibody test results (both against live SARS-CoV-2 and pseudoviruses) is important in vaccine pre-clinical trials, involving non-human primates, to allow accurate comparisons with those obtained in clinical ones[4]
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