Serologic cross-reactivity of SARS-CoV-2 with endemic and seasonal Betacoronaviruses

Jennifer Hicks; Carleen Klumpp-Thomas; Heather Kalish; Anandakumar Shunmugavel; Jennifer Mehalko; John-Paul Denson; Kelly Snead; Matthew Drew; Kizzmekia Corbett; Barney Graham; Matthew D Hall; Matthew J Memoli; Dominic Esposito; Kaitlyn Sadtler

doi:10.1101/2020.06.22.20137695

Serologic cross-reactivity of SARS-CoV-2 with endemic and seasonal Betacoronaviruses

medRxiv [Preprint]. 2020 Jun 23:2020.06.22.20137695. doi: 10.1101/2020.06.22.20137695.

Authors

Jennifer Hicks^{1

2}, Carleen Klumpp-Thomas^{3

2}, Heather Kalish^{1

2}, Anandakumar Shunmugavel², Jennifer Mehalko⁴, John-Paul Denson⁴, Kelly Snead⁴, Matthew Drew⁴, Kizzmekia Corbett⁵, Barney Graham⁵, Matthew D Hall³, Matthew J Memoli⁶, Dominic Esposito⁴, Kaitlyn Sadtler²

Affiliations

¹ Trans-NIH Shared Resource on Biomedical Engineering and Physical Science, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD 20894.
² Section on Immuno-Engineering, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD 20892.
³ National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Rockville MD, 20850.
⁴ Protein Expression Laboratory, NCI RAS Initiative, Cancer Research Technology Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD 21702.
⁵ Vaccine Research Center, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
⁶ LID Clinical Studies Unit, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894.

Abstract

In order to properly understand the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection and development of humoral immunity, researchers have evaluated the presence of serum antibodies of people worldwide experiencing the pandemic. These studies rely on the use of recombinant proteins from the viral genome in order to identify serum antibodies that recognize SARS-CoV-2 epitopes. Here, we discuss the cross-reactivity potential of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies with the full spike proteins of four other Betacoronaviruses that cause disease in humans, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, HCoV-OC43, and HCoV-HKU1. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), we detected the potential cross-reactivity of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 towards the four other coronaviruses, with the strongest cross-recognition between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS /MERS-CoV antibodies, as expected based on sequence homology of their respective spike proteins. Further analysis of cross-reactivity could provide informative data that could lead to intelligently designed pan-coronavirus therapeutics or vaccines.

Publication types

Preprint

Abstract

Publication types

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