Anti-Spike Antibody Response to Natural Infection with SARS-CoV-2 and Its Activity against Emerging Variants

  1. Cheng-Pin Chen
  2. Kuan-Ying A. Huang
  3. Shin-Ru Shih
  4. Yi-Chun Lin
  5. Chien-Yu Cheng
  6. Yhu-Chering Huang
  7. Tzou-Yien Lin
  8. Shu-Hsing Cheng

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Abstract

As spike protein-specific antibody responses play a major role in protection against SARS-CoV-2, we examined spike-binding and ACE2-blocking antibody responses in SARS-CoV-2 infection at different time points. We found robust responses following acute infection, which waned approximately 11 months after infection.

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  1. Version published to 10.1128/spectrum.00743-22
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.03.07.481737: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: Ethics statement: The study protocol and informed consent form were approved by the ethics committee of Chang Gung Medical Foundation and Taoyuan General Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare.
    IRB: Ethics statement: The study protocol and informed consent form were approved by the ethics committee of Chang Gung Medical Foundation and Taoyuan General Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    After washing, the wells were incubated with anti-human IgG, IgM, or IgA, secondary antibodies conjugated with alkaline phosphatase at room temperature for 2 h.
    anti-human IgG
    suggested: None
    IgA
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    Flow cytometry: To perform a flow cytometry-based binding assay, serial dilutions of serum in 3% BSA were incubated with MDCK-RBD and MDCK-Spike cells [19] at 4 °C for 30 min.
    MDCK-Spike
    suggested: None
    MDCK-ACE2 cells were then incubated with the mixture at 4 °C for 30 min.
    MDCK-ACE2
    suggested: None
    Pseudovirus neutralization assay: HEK293T cells stably expressing human ACE2 were seeded in a 96-well plate and incubated overnight.
    HEK293T
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Statistical analyses: Statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism or Excel.
    GraphPad Prism
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)
    Excel
    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: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Some limitations may exist in the study. First, this was a single-center observational study and the time points of blood sampling varied among patients. Second, anti-spike antibody response was undetectable in four patients. Most of them did not have risk factors, i.e., immunocompromised status, obesity, and age over 65 years, that may affect immunological responses [41,42]. However, all four patients had mild illness and one of them provided samples within the first week of illness. Third, a longitudinal follow-up of memory B cell responses was not performed. Previous research revealed that the size of antigen-specific memory B cell repertoire may show a trajectory pattern, and a long-term observation might be required to assess the dynamics of anti-spike memory B cell populations in the near future [22,23,26,27,29]. In conclusion, this study confirmed that acute SARS-CoV-2 infection elicits a rapid and robust spike-binding and ACE2-blocking antibody response, which wanes approximately 11 months after infection. Serological responses correlate with the frequency of spike-specific memory B cell responses to natural infections. Patients with fever and pneumonia develop significantly higher spike-binding, ACE2-blocking, and memory B-cell responses. However, spike-specific antibody responses are greatly affected by spike mutations in emerging variants, especially the Beta and Omicron variants. These results warrant continued surveillance of the spike-specific antibody response ...

    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    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.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2022.03.07.481737v1 on bioRxiv