A Rapid Method for Detection of Antigen-Specific B Cells

The global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has united the efforts of many scientists all over the world to develop wet-lab techniques and computational approaches aimed at the identification of antigen-specific T and B cells. The latter provide specific humoral immunity that is essential for the survival of COVID-19 patients, and vaccine development has essentially been based on these cells. Here, we implemented an approach that integrates the sorting of antigen-specific B cells and B-cell receptor mRNA sequencing (BCR-seq), followed by computational analysis. This rapid and cost-efficient method allowed us to identify antigen-specific B cells in the peripheral blood of patients with severe COVID-19 disease. Subsequently, specific BCRs were extracted, cloned, and produced as full antibodies. We confirmed their reactivity toward the spike RBD domain. Such an approach can be effective for the monitoring and identification of B cells participating in an individual immune response.