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Updated: Jan 31, 2026

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Receptor-Binding Domain Antibody using a HiBiT-Based Bioreporter
Published on: August 12, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein forms complexes with soluble complement regulatory proteins that can bind to the
Jakub Víglaský1, Katarína Bhide1, Lea Talpasova1
1Laboratory of Biomedical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice, Komenského 73, Košice, 041 81, Slovakia.
None:
The SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein has been detected in the plasma of COVID-19 patients, and its levels in the plasma correlate with the severity of the disease. It is also an immunomodulatory protein, triggering the release of proinflammatory cytokines. Complement system dysregulation in COVID-19 patients led us to hypothesize that either nucleocapsid protein or spike protein might interact with the proteins of the complement system, mainly complement regulatory proteins (CRPs). We demonstrate that the nucleocapsid protein, but not the spike protein, binds to multiple CRPs, including C1-inhibitor, C4-binding protein, factor H, and vitronectin. The nucleocapsid protein binds to both the recombinant spike protein and the SARS-CoV-2 virions. We further demonstrated that the virion-nucleocapsid-CRP complex could be formed. Recruitment of the CRPs on SARS-CoV-2 virion mediated by nucleocapsid protein deserves further investigation to reveal complement modulation strategies of SARS-CoV-2.
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