Rigid monoclonal antibodies improve detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein.
bioRxiv
; 2021 Jan 13.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33469584
ABSTRACT
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are the basis of treatments and diagnostics for pathogens and other biological phenomena. We conducted a structural characterization of mAbs against the N-terminal domain of nucleocapsid protein (NP NTD ) from SARS-CoV-2 using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Our solution-based results distinguished the mAbs' flexibility and how this flexibility impacts the assembly of multiple mAbs on an antigen. By pairing two mAbs that bind different epitopes on the NP NTD , we show that flexible mAbs form a closed sandwich-like complex. With rigid mAbs, a juxtaposition of the Fabs is prevented, enforcing a linear arrangement of the mAb pair, which facilitates further mAb polymerization. In a modified sandwich ELISA, we show the rigid mAb-pairings with linear polymerization led to increased NP NTD detection sensitivity. These enhancements can expedite the development of more sensitive and selective antigen-detecting point-of-care lateral flow devices (LFA), key for early diagnosis and epidemiological studies of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Screening_studies
Language:
En
Journal:
BioRxiv
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States