Development of a hybrid alphavirus-SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirion for rapid quantification of neutralization antibodies and antiviral drugs
Brian Hetrick, Linda Chilin, Sijia He, Deemah Dabbagh, Farhang Alem, Aarthi Narayanan, Alessandra Luchini, Tuanjie Li, Xuefeng Liu, Joshua Copeland, Angela Pak, Tshaka Cunningham, Lance A. Liotta, Emanuel F. Petricoin, Ali Andalibi, Yuntao Wu
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein (S)-pseudotyped viruses are commonly used for quantifying antiviral drugs and neutralizing antibodies. Here, we describe the development of a hybrid alphavirus-SARS-CoV-2 (Ha-CoV-2) pseudovirion, which is a non-replicating SARS-CoV-2 virus-like particle composed of viral structural proteins (S, M, N, and E) and an RNA genome derived from a fast-expressing alphaviral vector. We validated Ha-CoV-2 for rapid quantification of neutralization antibodies, antiviral drugs, and viral variants. In addition, as a proof of concept, we used Ha-CoV-2 to quantify the neutralizing antibodies from an infected and vaccinated individual and found that the one-dose vaccination with Moderna mRNA-1273 greatly increased the anti-serum titer by approximately 6-fold. The post-vaccination serum can neutralize all nine variants tested. These results demonstrate that Ha-CoV-2 can be used as a robust platform for the rapid quantification of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and its emerging variants.