Single-Domain SARS-CoV-2 S1 and RBD Antibodies Isolated from Immunized Llama Effectively Bind Targets of the Wuhan, UK, and South African Strains in vitro

  1. Divora Yemane
  2. Ivan Lu
  3. Winson Tiahjono
  4. Lauren Rubidoux
  5. Abbas Hussain
  6. John C. Cancilla
  7. Erika Duggan
  8. Nathan C. Shaner
  9. Nobuki Nakanishi
  10. Jiwu Wang

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Discuss this preprint

Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

The spreading of SARS-CoV-2 variants has become a major challenge of the current fight against the pandemic. Of particular concerns are the strains that have arisen from the United Kingdom (UK) and South Africa. The UK variant spreads rapidly and is projected to overtake the original strain in the US as early as in March 2021, while the South African variant appears to evade some effects of the current vaccines. Potential false-negative diagnosis using currently available antigen kits that may not recognize these variants could cause another wave of community infection. Therefore, it is imperative that antibodies used in the detection kits are validated for binding against these variants. Here we report that the nanoantibodies (nAbs in our terminology, also referred to as VHH fragments, single domain antibodies, nanobodies™) that we have developed for rapid antigen detection test bind the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the S1 protein from the original COVID-SARS-2 virus as well as those from the UK and South African variants. This finding validates our antibodies used in our assay for the detection of these major variant strains.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.02.15.431198: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    In two control experiments (1 and 2), the secondary antibody anti-HA mAb alone and the commercially available anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike mAb (CR3022, CAT# NBP2-90980F, Lot#T2022B04-110920-F, FITC, R&D Biosystems) were tested for their ability to bind the four beads described above.
    anti-HA
    suggested: None
    anti-SARS-CoV-2
    suggested: (Abcam Cat# ab273074, RRID:AB_2847846)
    CR3022
    suggested: (Imported from the IEDB Cat# CR3022, RRID:AB_2848080)

    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.
    • No funding statement was detected.
    • 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.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.02.15.431198 on bioRxiv