IMMUNO-COV v2.0: Development and Validation of a High-Throughput Clinical Assay for Measuring SARS-CoV-2-Neutralizing Antibody Titers
Rianna Vandergaast, Timothy S. Carey, Samantha Reiter, Chase Lathrum, Patrycja Lech, Clement W. Gnanadurai, Michelle Haselton, Jason Buehler, Riya Narjari, Luke Schnebeck, Anne Roesler, Kara Sevola, Lukkana Suksanpaisan, Alice Bexon, Shruthi Naik, Bethany Brunton, Scott C. Weaver, Grace Rafael, Sheryl Tran, Alina Baum, Christos A. Kyratsous, Kah Whye Peng, Stephen J. Russell
Abstract
Since its emergence at the end of 2019, SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, has caused over 100 million infections and 2.4 million deaths worldwide. Recently, countries have begun administering approved COVID-19 vaccines, which elicit strong immune responses and prevent disease in most vaccinated individuals. A key component of the protective immune response is the production of neutralizing antibodies capable of preventing future SARS-CoV-2 infection. Yet, fundamental questions remain regarding the longevity of neutralizing antibody responses following infection or vaccination and the level of neutralizing antibodies required to confer protection. Our work is significant as it describes the development and validation of a scalable clinical assay that measures SARS-CoV-2-neutraling antibody titers. We have critical virus reagent to test over 5 million samples, making our assay well suited for widespread monitoring of SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies, which can in turn be used to inform vaccine dosing schedules and answer fundamental questions regarding SARS-CoV-2 immunity.