Exploring beyond clinical routine SARS-CoV-2 serology using MultiCoV-Ab to evaluate endemic coronavirus cross-reactivity

Exploring beyond clinical routine SARS-CoV-2 serology using MultiCoV-Ab to evaluate endemic coronavirus cross-reactivity
Becker M, Strengert M, Junker D, Kaiser P, Kerrinnes T, Traenkle B, Dinter H, Häring J, Ghozzi S, Zeck A, Weise F, Peter A, Hörber S, Fink S, Ruoff F, Dulovic A, Bakchoul T, Baillot A, Lohse S, Cornberg M, Illig T, Gottlieb J, Smola S, Karch A, Berger K, Rammensee HG, Schenke-Layland K, Nelde A, Märklin M, Heitmann JS, Walz JS, Templin M, Joos TO, Rothbauer U, Krause K & Schneiderhan-Marra N
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | (2021) 12:1152 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-20973-3 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications

The humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2 is a benchmark for immunity and detailed
analysis is required to understand the manifestation and progression of COVID-19, monitor
seroconversion within the general population, and support vaccine development. The
majority of currently available commercial serological assays only quantify the SARS-CoV-2
antibody response against individual antigens, limiting our understanding of the immune
response. To overcome this, we have developed a multiplex immunoassay (MultiCoV-Ab)
including spike and nucleocapsid proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and the endemic human coronaviruses. Compared to three broadly used commercial in vitro diagnostic tests, our
MultiCoV-Ab achieves a higher sensitivity and specificity when analyzing a wellcharacterized sample set of SARS-CoV-2 infected and uninfected individuals. We find a
high response against endemic coronaviruses in our sample set, but no consistent crossreactive IgG response patterns against SARS-CoV-2. Here we show a robust, high-contentenabled, antigen-saving multiplex assay suited to both monitoring vaccination studies and
facilitating epidemiologic screenings for humoral immunity towards pandemic and endemic
coronaviruses.