Multifactorial seroprofiling dissects the contribution of pre-existing human coronaviruses responses to SARS-CoV-2 immunity

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Abstract

Determination of SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses in the context of pre-existing immunity to circulating human coronavirus (HCoV) is critical for understanding protective immunity. Here we perform a multifactorial analysis of SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV antibody responses in pre-pandemic ( N  = 825) and SARS-CoV-2-infected donors ( N  = 389) using a custom-designed multiplex ABCORA assay. ABCORA seroprofiling, when combined with computational modeling, enables accurate definition of SARS-CoV-2 seroconversion and prediction of neutralization activity, and reveals intriguing interrelations with HCoV immunity. Specifically, higher HCoV antibody levels in SARS-CoV-2-negative donors suggest that pre-existing HCoV immunity may provide protection against SARS-CoV-2 acquisition. In those infected, higher HCoV activity is associated with elevated SARS-CoV-2 responses, indicating cross-stimulation. Most importantly, HCoV immunity may impact disease severity, as patients with high HCoV reactivity are less likely to require hospitalization. Collectively, our results suggest that HCoV immunity may promote rapid development of SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity, thereby underscoring the importance of exploring cross-protective responses for comprehensive coronavirus prevention.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.21.21255410: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    In the final protocol, five million anti-His antibody coupled magnetic beads were incubated with His-tagged antigens diluted in PBS at a concentration of 320 nM.
    anti-His
    suggested: None
    Phycoerythrin (PE)-labeled secondary antibodies specific to IgG, IgA or IgM were used as detector antibodies (Supplementary Table 13).
    Phycoerythrin (PE)-labeled
    suggested: None
    secondary antibodies specific to IgG, IgA or IgM
    suggested: None
    50 µl diluted plasma were incubated with 50 µl of the ABCORA antigen bead cocktail for 30 minutes at room temperature in 96-well plates, washed three times with PBS-BSA 1% and incubated in separate reactions with phycoerythrin (PE)-labeled detector antibodies for IgG, IgA or IgM at a final concentration of 1/500 in PBS-BSA 1%.
    phycoerythrin (PE)-labeled detector antibodies for IgG
    suggested: None
    Antibody status of plasma from SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals (N=171) were analyzed with the following test systems: Included test systems targeted the N protein (Elecsys® Anti-SARS-CoV-2 (Roche Diagnostics GmbH)), the RBD region of the S protein (Elecsys® Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S assay (Roche Diagnostics GmbH)), and the S1 subunit (EUROIMMUN Anti-SARS-CoV-2 ELISA (IgG)) (Supplementary Table 7).
    Anti-SARS-CoV-2
    suggested: None
    Anti-SARS-CoV-2 ELISA (IgG)
    suggested: None
    The first was based on the S1/RBD specific antibody CR3022 (37 and Supplementary Table 13).
    S1/RBD
    suggested: None
    We used this approach to quantify the concentration of RBD and S1 antibody reactivity in the positive donor control, and used titrations of the donor pool included on each ABCORA plate to calculate the S1 and RBD content of plasma samples in relation to it.
    S1
    suggested: None
    Association between HCoVs and SARS-CoV-2 reactivities: To explore the association between HCoVs and SARS-CoV-2 reactivities, we defined a new HCoV response variable (HCoV high/low) for each antibody class (IgG, IgA, IgM) as follows: a patient had high HCoV Ig reactivity for a given antibody class if its measurements were higher than the population median in at least three out of the four HCoV measurements (HKU1, OC43, NL63, 229E).
    antibody class (IgG
    suggested: None
    IgA, IgM
    suggested: None
    NL63
    suggested: (Virostat Cat# 3879, RRID:AB_2889994)
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    293-T cells were obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC CRL-11268) 61.
    293-T
    suggested: None
    HT1080/ACE2cl.14 cells 32 were kindly provided by P. Bieniasz, Rockefeller University, NY.
    HT1080/ACE2cl.14
    suggested: None
    ABCORA 2.0 included in addition S1 of HCoV-HKU1, ABCORA 5.0 included S1 of all circulating HCoVs (HCoV-NL63, HCoV-229E, HCoV-HKU1, HCoV-OC43).
    HCoV-NL63
    suggested: RRID:CVCL_RW88)
    Recombinant DNA
    SentencesResources
    The env-inactivated HIV-1 reporter construct pHIV-1NL4-3 ΔEnv-NanoLuc (pHIV-1Nanoluc) and HT1080/ACE2cl.14 cells were kindly provided by P. Bieniasz, Rockefeller University, NY, USA.
    pHIV-1NL4-3
    suggested: None
    To create a SARS-CoV-2 spike expression plasmid (P_CoV2_Wuhan), a codon-optimized C terminal truncated (AA 1255-1273) spike encoding gene of strain Wuhan-Hu-1 (GenBank accession no. MN908947) was synthesized (GeneArt, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA) and cloned into pcDNA.3.1.
    pcDNA.3.1
    suggested: None
    Pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 spike expressing viruses were generated by co-transfecting 293-T cells with a mixture of pHIV-1Nanoluc, P_CoV2_Wuhan and PEI Max (Polysciences Europe GmbH, Hirschberg, Germany).
    pHIV-1Nanoluc
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Plasma neutralization titers causing 50%, 80% and 90% reduction in viral infectivity (NT50, NT80 and NT90, respectively) compared to controls without plasma were calculated by fitting a sigmoid dose–response curve (variable slope) to the RLU data, using GraphPad Prism with constraints (bottom=0, top=100).
    GraphPad Prism
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)
    Figures were made using the ggplot2 package70.
    ggplot2
    suggested: (ggplot2, RRID:SCR_014601)

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your code and data.


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    As others and we have shown, SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV immunity to infection is often not long-lasting (Fig. 5, Supplementary Fig. 10) 5,60, a limitation that SARS-CoV-2 vaccines hope to overcome. Should SARS-CoV-2 responses in turn provide a degree of defense against HCoV infection, broad protection against coronaviruses may be in reach.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

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