SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibody Responses towards Full-Length Spike Protein and the Receptor-Binding Domain

Abstract

Tools to monitor SARS-CoV-2 transmission and immune responses are needed. We present a neutralization ELISA to determine the levels of Ab-mediated virus neutralization and a preclinical model of focused immunization strategy. The ELISA is strongly correlated with the elaborate plaque reduction neutralization test (ρ = 0.9231, <i>p</i> < 0.0001). The neutralization potency of convalescent sera strongly correlates to IgG titers against SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) and spike (ρ = 0.8291 and 0.8297, respectively; <i>p</i> < 0.0001) and to a lesser extent with the IgG titers against protein N (ρ = 0.6471, <i>p</i> < 0.0001). The preclinical vaccine NMRI mice models using RBD and full-length spike Ag as immunogens show a profound Ab neutralization capacity (IC₅₀ = 1.9 × 10⁴ to 2.6 × 10⁴ and 3.9 × 10³ to 5.2 × 10³, respectively). Using a panel of novel high-affinity murine mAbs, we also show that a majority of the RBD-raised mAbs have inhibitory properties, whereas only a few of the spike-raised mAbs do. The ELISA-based viral neutralization test offers a time- and cost-effective alternative to the plaque reduction neutralization test. The immunization results indicate that vaccine strategies focused only on the RBD region may have advantages compared with the full spike.