A High-Throughput Assay for Circulating Antibodies Directed Against the S Protein of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2
Svenja Weiß, Jéromine Klingler, Catarina E. Hioe, Fatima Amanat, Ian Baine, Suzanne Arinsburg, Erna Milunka Kojic, Jonathan Stoever, Sean Liu, Denise Jurczyszak, Maria C. Bermúdez‐González, Viviana Simon, Florian Krammer, Susan Zolla‐Pazner
Abstract
More than 24 million infections with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were confirmed globally by September 2020. While polymerase chain reaction-based assays are used for diagnosis, there is a need for high-throughput, rapid serologic methods. A Luminex binding assay was developed and used to assess simultaneously the presence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-specific antibodies in human serum and plasma. Clear differentiation was achieved between specimens from infected and uninfected subjects, and a wide range of serum/plasma antibody levels was delineated in infected subjects. All 25 specimens from 18 patients with COVID-19 were positive in the assays with both the trimeric spike and the receptor-binding domain proteins. None of the 13 specimens from uninfected subjects displayed antibodies to either antigen. There was a highly statistically significant difference between the antibody levels of COVID-19-infected and -uninfected specimens (P < .0001). This high-throughput antibody assay is accurate, requires only 2.5 hours, and uses 5 ng of antigen per test.