Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in COVID-19 convalescent blood using a coronavirus antigen microarray

Rafael Ramiro de Assis(University of California, Irvine), Aarti Jain(University of California, Irvine), Rie Nakajima(University of California, Irvine), Algis Jasinskas(University of California, Irvine), Jiin Felgner(University of California, Irvine), Joshua M. Obiero(University of California, Irvine), Philip J. Norris(University of California, San Francisco), Mars Stone(University of California, San Francisco), Graham Simmons(University of California, San Francisco), Anil Bagri(Cerus (United States)), Johannes Irsch(Cerus (United States)), Martin A. Schreiber(Oregon Health & Science University), Andreas Buser(University of Basel), Andreas Holbro(Oregon Health & Science University), Manuel Battegay(University of Basel), Philip Hosimer(Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (United States)), Charles Noesen(Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (United States)), Oluwasanmi Adenaiye(University of Maryland, College Park), Sheldon Tai(University of Maryland, College Park), Filbert Hong(University of Maryland, College Park), Donald K. Milton(University of Maryland, College Park), D. Huw Davies(University of California, Irvine), Paul Contestable(Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (United States)), Laurence Corash(Cerus (United States)), Michael P. Busch(University of California, San Francisco), Philip L. Felgner(University of California, Irvine), Saahir Khan(University of Southern California)
Nature Communications
January 4, 2021
10.1038/s41467-020-20095-2
Cited by 196Open Access
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Abstract

The current practice for diagnosis of COVID-19, based on SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing of pharyngeal or respiratory specimens in a symptomatic patient at high epidemiologic risk, likely underestimates the true prevalence of infection. Serologic methods can more accurately estimate the disease burden by detecting infections missed by the limited testing performed to date. Here, we describe the validation of a coronavirus antigen microarray containing immunologically significant antigens from SARS-CoV-2, in addition to SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, common human coronavirus strains, and other common respiratory viruses. A comparison of antibody profiles detected on the array from control sera collected prior to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic versus convalescent blood specimens from virologically confirmed COVID-19 cases demonstrates near complete discrimination of these two groups, with improved performance from use of antigen combinations that include both spike protein and nucleoprotein. This array can be used as a diagnostic tool, as an epidemiologic tool to more accurately estimate the disease burden of COVID-19, and as a research tool to correlate antibody responses with clinical outcomes.

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