Immunogenicity and crossreactivity of antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2: utility and limitations in seroprevalence and immunity studies

Autor: Rubén López-Aladid, Luis Izquierdo, Francisco Carmona-Torre, Gemma Moncunill, Ruth Aguilar, Antoni Torres, Carlo Carolis, Natalia Rodrigo Melero, Matija Popovic, Alberto L. García-Basteiro, Alfredo Mayor, Jordi Chi, Laia Fernández-Barat, Marta Vidal, Carlota Dobaño, Alfons Jiménez, Marta Tortajada, Gabriel Reina, Rebeca Santano
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Male
0301 basic medicine
MFI
median fluorescence intensity
Rhinovirus
viruses
LOESS
locally estimated scatterplot smoothing
Antibodies
Viral
medicine.disease_cause
0302 clinical medicine
Seroepidemiologic Studies
FL
full-length
skin and connective tissue diseases
COVID-19
coronavirus disease 2019
biology
Immunogenicity
RBD
receptor-binding domain
virus diseases
Common cold
General Medicine
CT
C-terminus
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
ADE
antibody-dependent disease enhancement
Female
Antibody
S
spike
Alpha (ethology)
Cross Reactions
SARS-CoV-2
severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Article
rRT-PCR
real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction
NT
N-terminus
03 medical and health sciences
Immunity
Physiology (medical)
medicine
Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Proteins
Humans
Seroprevalence
Biochemistry
medical
SARS-CoV-2
M
month
fungi
Biochemistry (medical)
Public Health
Environmental and Occupational Health
COVID-19
HCoV
common cold human coronavirus
medicine.disease
Virology
body regions
030104 developmental biology
Immunoglobulin G
biology.protein
N
nucleocapsid
Zdroj: Translational Research
ISSN: 1931-5244
DOI: 10.1016/j.trsl.2021.02.006
Popis: COVID-19 patients elicit strong responses to the nucleocapsid (N) protein of SARS-CoV-2 but binding antibodies are also detected in prepandemic individuals, indicating potential crossreactivity with common cold human coronaviruses (HCoV) and questioning its utility in seroprevalence studies. We investigated the immunogenicity of the full-length and shorter fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 N protein, and the crossreactivity of antibodies with HCoV. We identified a C-terminus region in SARS-CoV2 N of minimal sequence homology with HCoV that was more specific for SARS-CoV-2 and highly immunogenic. IgGs to the full-length SARS-CoV-2 N also recognized N229E N, and IgGs to HKU1 N recognized SARS-CoV-2 N. Crossreactivity with SARS-CoV-2 was stronger for alpha- rather than beta-HCoV despite having less sequence identity, revealing the importance of conformational recognition. Higher preexisting IgG to OC43 N correlated with lower IgG to SARS-CoV-2 N in rRT-PCR negative individuals, reflecting less exposure and indicating a potential protective association. Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 N were higher in patients with more severe and longer duration of symptoms and in females. IgGs remained stable for at least 3 months, while IgAs and IgMs declined faster. In conclusion, N protein is a primary target of SARS-CoV-2-specific and HCoV crossreactive antibodies, both of which may affect the acquisition of immunity to COVID-19.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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