Journal Article Epublish 3 citations
PubMed: 37766081 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines11091403
Detection of Antibodies against Endemic and SARS-CoV-2 Coronaviruses with Short Peptide Epitopes.
Vaccines (Basel) 11(9)
Authors: Michael Szardenings, Nicolas Delaroque, Karolin Kern, Lisbeth Ramirez-Caballero, Marcus Puder, Eva Ehrentreich-Förster, Joachim Beige, Sebastian Zürner, Georg Popp, Johannes Wolf, Stephan Borte
Affiliations
- Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI), Perlickstr. 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
- epitopic GmbH, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
- Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Branch Bioanalytics and Bioprocesses IZI-BB, Am Mühlenberg 13, 14476 Potsdam, Germany.
- Martin-Luther-University Halle/Wittenberg, Medical Clinic 2, 06112 Halle, Germany.
- Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI), Perlickstr. 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. WINF/Informationsmanagement, University Leipzig, Grimmaische Straße 12, 04109 Leipzig, Germany.
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Hospital St. Georg, Delitzscher Strasse 141, 04129 Leipzig, Germany.
- ImmunoDeficiencyCenter Leipzig (IDCL), Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research Center for Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases, Hospital St. Georg, Delitzscher Strasse 141, 04129 Leipzig, Germany.
Abstract
(1) Background: Coronavirus proteins are quite conserved amongst endemic strains (eCoV) and SARS-CoV-2. We aimed to evaluate whether peptide epitopes might serve as useful diagnostic biomarkers to stratify previous infections and COVID-19. (2) Methods: Peptide epitopes were identified at an amino acid resolution that applied a novel statistical approach to generate data sets of potential antibody binding peptides. (3) Results: Data sets from more than 120 COVID-19 or eCoV-infected patients, as well as vaccinated persons, have been used to generate data sets that have been used to search in silico for potential epitopes in proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and eCoV. Peptide epitopes were validated with >300 serum samples in synthetic peptide micro arrays and epitopes specific for different viruses, in addition to the identified cross reactive epitopes. (4) Conclusions: Most patients develop antibodies against non-structural proteins, which are useful general markers for recent infections. However, there are differences in the epitope patterns of COVID-19, and eCoV, and the S-protein vaccine, which can only be explained by a high degree of cross-reactivity between the viruses, a pre-existing immune response against some epitopes, and even an alternate processing of the vaccine proteins.
MeSH
Coronavirus, Sars-Cov-2, Epitopes, Serology, Vaccines, Antibodies, Biomarkers, Viruses, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Related Coronavirus, Infections