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Epitope-specific antibody responses differentiate COVID-19 outcomes and variants of concern
JCI Insight
  • Courtney Voss, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Sally Esmail, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Xuguang Liu, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Michael J. Knauer, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Suzanne Ackloo, University of Toronto
  • Tomonori Kaneko, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Lori Lowes, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Peter Stogios, University of Toronto
  • Almagul Seitova, University of Toronto
  • Ashley Hutchinson, University of Toronto
  • Farhad Yusifov, University of Toronto
  • Tatiana Skarina, University of Toronto
  • Elena Evdokimova, University of Toronto
  • Peter Loppnau, University of Toronto
  • Pegah Ghiabi, University of Toronto
  • Taraneh Haijan, University of Toronto
  • Shanshan Zhong, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Husam Abdoh, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Benjamin D. Hedley, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Vipin Bhayana, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Claudio M. Martin, Western University
  • Marat Slessarev, Western University
  • Benjamin Chin-Yee, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Douglas D. Fraser, Western University
  • Ian Chin-Yee, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
  • Shawn S.C. Li, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-8-2021
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1172/jci.insight.148855
Abstract

BACKGROUND. The role of humoral immunity in COVID-19 is not fully understood, owing, in large part, to the complexity of antibodies produced in response to the SARS-CoV-2 infection. There is a pressing need for serology tests to assess patient-specific antibody response and predict clinical outcome. METHODS. Using SARS-CoV-2 proteome and peptide microarrays, we screened 146 COVID-19 patients’ plasma samples to identify antigens and epitopes. This enabled us to develop a master epitope array and an epitope-specific agglutination assay to gauge antibody responses systematically and with high resolution. RESULTS. We identified linear epitopes from the spike (S) and nucleocapsid (N) proteins and showed that the epitopes enabled higher resolution antibody profiling than the S or N protein antigen. Specifically, we found that antibody responses to the S-811–825, S-881–895, and N-156–170 epitopes negatively or positively correlated with clinical severity or patient survival. Moreover, we found that the P681H and S235F mutations associated with the coronavirus variant of concern B.1.1.7 altered the specificity of the corresponding epitopes. CONCLUSION. Epitope-resolved antibody testing not only affords a high-resolution alternative to conventional immunoassays to delineate the complex humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and differentiate between neutralizing and non-neutralizing antibodies, but it also may potentially be used to predict clinical outcome. The epitope peptides can be readily modified to detect antibodies against variants of concern in both the peptide array and latex agglutination formats. FUNDING. Ontario Research Fund (ORF) COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund, Toronto COVID-19 Action Fund, Western University, Lawson Health Research Institute, London Health Sciences Foundation, and Academic Medical Organization of Southwestern Ontario (AMOSO) Innovation Fund.

Citation Information
Courtney Voss, Sally Esmail, Xuguang Liu, Michael J. Knauer, et al.. "Epitope-specific antibody responses differentiate COVID-19 outcomes and variants of concern" JCI Insight Vol. 6 Iss. 13 (2021)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/douglas-fraser/53/