Abstract
BackgroundConvalescent plasma (CP) transfusion is considered to be the priority therapeutic option for COVID-19 inpatients when no specific drugs are available for emerging infections. An alternative, simple, and sensitive method is urgently needed for clinical use to detect neutralization activity of the CP to avoid the use of inconvenient micro-neutralization assay.MethodThis study aims to explore optimal index in predicting the COVID-19 CP neutralization activity (neutralizing antibody titers, NAb titers) in an indirect ELISA format. Fifty-seven COVID-19-recovered patients plasma samples were subjected to anti-SARS-CoV-2 RBD, S1, and N protein IgG antibody by indirect ELISA.ResultsELISA-RBD exhibited high specificity (96.2%) and ELISA-N had high sensitivity (100%); while ELISA-S1 had low sensitivity (86.0%) and specificity (73.1%). Furthermore, ELISA-RBD IgG titers and pseudovirus-based NAb titers correlated significantly, with R2 of 0.2564 (P < 0.0001).ConclusionELISA-RBD could be a substitute for the neutralization assay in resource-limited situations to screen potential plasma donors for further plasma infusion therapy.
Highlights
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the novel emerging coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has induced ongoing global threat after the first case reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China (Salata et al, 2019)
ELISA-receptor-binding domain (RBD) could be a substitute for the neutralization assay in resourcelimited situations to screen potential plasma donors for further plasma infusion therapy
To confirm the sensitivity and specificity of IgG antibodies against RBD, S1 and N proteins, serially diluted Convalescent plasma (CP) samples and Healthy donor (HD) samples were used to evaluate IgG responses against various viral proteins via OD450 values detection
Summary
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the novel emerging coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has induced ongoing global threat after the first case reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China (Salata et al, 2019). To evaluate the efficacy of CP, Li and his colleagues set a randomized controlled trial and found that CP (S-RBD specific IgG titer ≥ 1:640) was unable to shorten the time to clinical improvement of the severe and life-threatening COVID-19 patients (Li et al, 2020). Convalescent plasma (CP) transfusion is considered to be the priority therapeutic option for COVID-19 inpatients when no specific drugs are available for emerging infections. Simple, and sensitive method is urgently needed for clinical use to detect neutralization activity of the CP to avoid the use of inconvenient micro-neutralization assay
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