TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluation of a commercially-available surrogate virus neutralization test for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)
AU - Valcourt, Emelissa J.
AU - Manguiat, Kathy
AU - Robinson, Alyssia
AU - Chen, Julie Chih Yu
AU - Dimitrova, Kristina
AU - Philipson, Clark
AU - Lamoureux, Lise
AU - McLachlan, Elizabeth
AU - Schiffman, Zachary
AU - Drebot, Michael A.
AU - Wood, Heidi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - There remains an urgent need for assays to quantify humoral protective immunity to SARS-CoV-2 to understand the immune responses of COVID-19 patients, evaluate efficacy of vaccine candidates in clinical trials, and conduct large-scale epidemiological studies. The plaque-reduction neutralization test (PRNT) is the reference-standard for quantifying antibodies capable of neutralizing SARS-CoV-2. However, the PRNT is logistically demanding, time-consuming, and requires containment level-3 facilities to safely work with live virus. In contrast, a surrogate virus neutralization test (sVNT) manufactured by Genscript is a quick and simple assay that detects antibodies that inhibit the RBD-ACE2 interaction, crucial for virus entry into host cells. In this study, we evaluate the sensitivity, specificity, and cross-reactivity of the sVNT compared with the PRNT using both 50% and 90% SARS-CoV-2 neutralization as a reference-standard. We found that the sVNT provides a high-throughput screening tool prior to confirmatory PRNT testing for the evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies.
AB - There remains an urgent need for assays to quantify humoral protective immunity to SARS-CoV-2 to understand the immune responses of COVID-19 patients, evaluate efficacy of vaccine candidates in clinical trials, and conduct large-scale epidemiological studies. The plaque-reduction neutralization test (PRNT) is the reference-standard for quantifying antibodies capable of neutralizing SARS-CoV-2. However, the PRNT is logistically demanding, time-consuming, and requires containment level-3 facilities to safely work with live virus. In contrast, a surrogate virus neutralization test (sVNT) manufactured by Genscript is a quick and simple assay that detects antibodies that inhibit the RBD-ACE2 interaction, crucial for virus entry into host cells. In this study, we evaluate the sensitivity, specificity, and cross-reactivity of the sVNT compared with the PRNT using both 50% and 90% SARS-CoV-2 neutralization as a reference-standard. We found that the sVNT provides a high-throughput screening tool prior to confirmatory PRNT testing for the evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Immunity
KW - Neutralization test
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098483978&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85098483978&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2020.115294
DO - 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2020.115294
M3 - Article
C2 - 33387896
AN - SCOPUS:85098483978
SN - 0732-8893
VL - 99
JO - Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease
JF - Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease
IS - 4
M1 - 115294
ER -