Cross-reactive neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 by serum antibodies from recovered SARS patients and immunized animals

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Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic, caused by a novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, poses serious threats to public health and social stability, calling for urgent need for vaccines and therapeutics. SARS-CoV-2 is genetically close to SARS-CoV, thus it is important to define the between antigenic cross-reactivity and neutralization. In this study, we firstly analyzed 20 convalescent serum samples collected from SARS-CoV infected individuals during the 2003 SARS outbreak. All patient sera reacted strongly with the S1 subunit and receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV, cross-reacted with the S ectodomain, S1, RBD, and S2 proteins of SARS-CoV-2, and neutralized both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 S protein-driven infections. Multiple panels of antisera from mice and rabbits immunized with a full-length S and RBD immunogens of SARS-CoV were also characterized, verifying the cross-reactive neutralization against SARS-CoV-2. Interestingly, we found that a palm civet SARS-CoV-derived RBD elicited more potent cross-neutralizing responses in immunized animals than the RBD from a human SARS-CoV strain, informing a strategy to develop a universe vaccine against emerging CoVs.

Summary

Serum antibodies from SARS-CoV infected patients and immunized animals cross-neutralize SARS-CoV-2 suggests strategies for universe vaccines against emerging CoVs.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.03.15.993097: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: Recruitment of patients and specimen collections: Patients with RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 disease at the Infectious Disease Centre of the Princess Margaret Hospital, Hong Kong, were invited to participate in the study after providing informed consent.
    IRB: The study was approved the institutional review board of the Hong Kong West Cluster of the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong (approval number: UW20-169).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    After extensive washing with PBS containing 0.1% Tween 20, each well in the plate was further incubated with the HRP-sheep anti-mouse or anti-human secondary antibody (1:5000, GE Healthcare) for 1 hour at 37°C.
    anti-human
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    After 1 h of incubation at 37°C, 35 µl of the virus-serum mixture was added in quadruplicate to Vero or Vero E6 cell monolayers in 96-well microtiter plates.
    Vero E6
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Organisms/Strains
    SentencesResources
    For the control group, Balb/c mice were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with 50 µL Addavax plus 150 µL PBS, or 200 µL PBS only.
    Balb/c
    suggested: None

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    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.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.