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Establishment of human post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 standard reference sera
Jinhua Xiang1, Louis Katz2, Patricia L Winokur3
1Iowa City Veterans Administration Healthcare System, 601 Highway 6, Iowa City, IA 52246, USA; The University of Iowa, 200 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
Journal of Immunological Methods
|June 1, 2024
Summary
Researchers created standardized serum reference reagents from individuals vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) to assess vaccine effectiveness against evolving variants. These reagents enable consistent evaluation of neutralizing antibodies in laboratory settings.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Virology
- Vaccinology
Background:
- COVID-19 pandemic highlights rapid spread and evolution of SARS-CoV-2.
- Waning vaccine-induced immunity and emerging variants reduce protection.
- Need for standardized methods to assess neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants.
Purpose of the Study:
- To generate and characterize standardized serum reference reagents from diverse SARS-CoV-2 vaccine recipients.
- To enable consistent, inter-laboratory evaluation of vaccine-elicited antibody neutralization in vitro.
- To provide a tool for assessing vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.
Main Methods:
- Collected and pooled sera from individuals receiving primary and boosted SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations (mRNA, Ad26, NVX-CoV2373).
- Screened sera for absence of prior infection markers (nucleocapsid antibodies).
- Characterized serum antibodies for spike protein binding, ACE2 binding competition, and pseudotyped lentivirus neutralization.
Main Results:
- Generated characterized serum pools from recipients of various SARS-CoV-2 vaccine platforms.
- Established standardized assays for antibody binding and neutralization capacity.
- Made these reference reagents available to the research community via BEI Resources.
Conclusions:
- The developed serum reagents allow standardized, comparable assessment of SARS-CoV-2 neutralization.
- These reagents are crucial for evaluating vaccine-induced antibody efficacy against current and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.
- Facilitates research into vaccine effectiveness and the development of next-generation vaccines.
