The Nucleocapsid protein triggers the main humoral immune response in COVID-19 patients.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun
; 543: 45-49, 2021 03 05.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33515911
ABSTRACT
In order to control the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, serious progress has been made to identify infected patients and to detect patients with a positive immune response against the virus. Currently, attempts to generate a vaccine against the coronavirus are ongoing. To understand SARS-CoV-2 immunoreactivity, we compared the IgG antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 in infected versus control patients by dot blot using recombinant viral particle proteins N (Nucleocapsid), M (Membrane) and S (Spike). In addition, we used different protein fragments of the N and S protein to map immune epitopes. Most of the COVID-19 patients presented a specific immune response against the full length and fragments of the N protein and, to lesser extent, against a fragment containing amino acids 300-685 of the S protein. In contrast, immunoreactivity against other S protein fragments or the M protein was low. This response is specific for COVID-19 patients as very few of the control patients displayed immunoreactivity, likely reflecting an immune response against other coronaviruses. Altogether, our results may help develop method(s) for measuring COVID-19 antibody response, selectivity of methods detecting such SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and vaccine development.
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Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Proteínas do Nucleocapsídeo de Coronavírus
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SARS-CoV-2
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COVID-19
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article