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 well-characterized 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 cross-reactive IgG response patterns against SARS-CoV-2. Here we show a robust, high-content-enabled, antigen-saving multiplex assay suited to both monitoring vaccination studies and facilitating epidemiologic screenings for humoral immunity towards pandemic and endemic coronaviruses.
- Becker, M.
- Strengert, M.
- Junker, D.
- Kaiser, P. D.
- 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, H. G.
- Schenke-Layland, K.
- Nelde, A.
- Märklin, M.
- Heitmann, J. S.
- Walz, J. S.
- Templin, M.
- Joos, T. O.
- Rothbauer, U.
- Krause, G.
- Schneiderhan-Marra, N.
