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Comparative Study
. 2024 May 15;16(747):eadl1722.
doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adl1722. Epub 2024 May 15.

Comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 neutralization titers reveals consistency between human and animal model serum and across assays

Affiliations
Comparative Study

Comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 neutralization titers reveals consistency between human and animal model serum and across assays

Barbara Mühlemann et al. Sci Transl Med. .

Abstract

The evolution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) requires ongoing monitoring to judge the ability of newly arising variants to escape the immune response. A surveillance system necessitates an understanding of differences in neutralization titers measured in different assays and using human and animal serum samples. We compared 18 datasets generated using human, hamster, and mouse serum and six different neutralization assays. Datasets using animal model serum samples showed higher titer magnitudes than datasets using human serum samples in this comparison. Fold change in neutralization of variants compared to ancestral SARS-CoV-2, immunodominance patterns, and antigenic maps were similar among serum samples and assays. Most assays yielded consistent results, except for differences in fold change in cytopathic effect assays. Hamster serum samples were a consistent surrogate for human first-infection serum samples. These results inform the transition of surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 antigenic variation from dependence on human first-infection serum samples to the utilization of serum samples from animal models.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests

VMC is a co-inventor on a patent application entitled “Methods and reagents for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection” (Patent application no EP3809137A1). MSD is a consultant for Inbios, Vir Biotechnology, Ocugen, Topspin Therapeutics, Moderna, and Immunome. The Diamond laboratory has received unrelated funding support in sponsored research agreements from Moderna, Vir Biotechnology, Generate Biomedicines, and Emergent BioSolutions. YK received unrelated funding support from Daiichi Sankyo Pharmaceutical, Toyama Chemical, Tauns Laboratories, Inc., Shionogi & Co. LTD, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, KM Biologics, Kyoritsu Seiyaku, Shinya Corporation, and Fuji Rebio. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has filed patent applications relating to SARS-CoV-2 serological assays and NDV-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines which list FK as co-inventor: “Influenza virus vaccination regimens” (Patent no 20190125859), “Influenza virus vaccines and uses thereof” (Patent no 9371366), “Influenza virus vaccines and uses thereof” (Patent nos 20180333479, 9968670, 20190099484, 20150335729, 10131695, 10137189, 20140328875, 20160361408, 20150132330, 20190106461, WO2013043729A1 WIPO (PCT), WO2016205347A1 WIPO (PCT)), “Influenza virus hemagglutinin proteins and uses thereof” (Patent nos WO2017218624A1 WIPO (PCT)), “Influenza virus vaccination regimens” (WO2016118937A1 WIPO (PCT)). Mount Sinai has spun out a company, Kantaro, to market serological tests for SARS-CoV-2. FK has consulted for Merck, Seqirus, Curevac and Pfizer, and is currently consulting for GSK, Gritstone, 3rd Rock Ventures and Avimex. FK is a co-founder and scientific advisory board member of CastleVax. The Krammer laboratory is also collaborating with Pfizer on animal models of SARS-CoV-2 and Dynavax on influenza virus vaccines. IE has received a research grant and speakers fees from Moderna. B. Meyer has received a research grant from Moderna. GRS is on the GSK Vaccines Scientific Advisory Board. Oxford University holds intellectual property related to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. MSS serves in an advisory role for Ocugen, Inc. SP reports that the Uniformed Services University (USU) Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Program (IDCRP), a US Department of Defense institution, and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation (HJF) were funded under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to conduct an unrelated phase III COVID-19 monoclonal antibody immunoprophylaxis trial sponsored by AstraZeneca. The HJF, in support of the USU IDCRP, was funded by the Department of Defense Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense to augment the conduct of an unrelated phase III vaccine trial sponsored by AstraZeneca. Both trials were part of the U.S. Government COVID-19 response. Neither is related to the work presented here. Authors not listed above declare that they have no competing interests. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy of the USUHS, Department of the Army, Department of the Navy, the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. (HJF). The investigators have adhered to the policies for protection of human subjects as prescribed in 45 CFR 46. SL, WW, and CDW are US Government employees. Title 17 U.S.C. §105 provides that ‘Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government.’ Title 17 U.S.C. §101 defines a U.S. Government work as a work prepared by an employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:. Titers were compared between serum from humans, hamsters, and mice infected with the B.1.351 variant.
(A) Raw titers for the B.1.351 convalescent serum groups are shown. (B) Shown is the posterior distribution of the dataset magnitude effect. Datasets are grouped by species (human, hamster, mouse) on the y-axis and colored by assay type. Vertical bars show the 95% highest posterior density interval, each with a colored dot denoting the mean. (C) Shown are titers after adjusting for dataset magnitude effects. In (A) and (C), each dot corresponds to the GMT of a variant titrated against all B.1.351 convalescent serum samples in a particular dataset; GMTs in (C) were calculated from titers adjusted for dataset magnitude effect. Dots are colored by the species. The gray bar heights indicate the median of the GMTs of the individual datasets. Equivalent plots for all six serum groups can be found in fig. S27 (titer magnitude) and S31 (titer variability).
Figure 2:
Figure 2:. Fold changes in the mRNA-1273 or BNT162b2 vaccinated (mRNA vax.), and D614G, B.1.351, B.1.617.2, and BA.1 convalescent (conv.) serum groups were measured in the 18 datasets.
Dots show the mean estimated fold change for each variant in each dataset and the bars show the estimated 95% highest posterior density intervals, with the colors corresponding to the variant. Variants are ordered on the x-axis within-dataset by decreasing estimated mean fold change calculated in a particular serum group across all datasets. Datasets are grouped by assay on the x-axis with bold vertical lines separating the FRNT, LV-PV-neut, VSV-PV-neut, PRNT, Microneut, and CPE datasets. The light gray line in each panel indicates the estimated fold change per variant in a particular serum group calculated across all datasets in descending order. The black line shows the estimated fold change per variant in descending order after accounting for differences in fold change between datasets. Equivalent figures that include the B.1.1.7 and P.1 convalescent serum groups, as well as ordered by species (human, hamster, and mouse) are shown in fig. S30 and S31, respectively. Figures split by variant are shown in fig. S36 (by dataset), fig. S37 (by species), and fig. S38 (by assay). Empty spaces indicate that a dataset did not contain that serum group.
Figure 3:
Figure 3:. Serum groups exhibit different sensitivity to the E484K and N501Y substitutions.
(A and B) Each row shows the average fold difference in titer between the two variants on the left, which differ by only the E484K (A) or the N501Y (B) substitution in the RBD. A positive fold difference corresponds to higher titers against the variant with the substitution, whereas a negative fold difference corresponds to higher titers against the variant without the substitution. Symbols and ranges correspond to the average fold difference and 95% highest posterior density intervals. Data are colored by species and the background of dataset names is colored by the assay. Vertical lines indicate the average fold difference in each dataset, colored by species. The gray line indicates no difference in titers between variants. Fig. S42 shows the same figure, split by assay. The ‘+E484K’ suffix to the variant names indicates that the E484K substitution is present in addition to any other substitutions present in that variant.
Figure 4:
Figure 4:. Antigenic maps constructed from the 18 datasets.
(A) Antigenic maps are shown for each of the 18 datasets. Arrows point to the position of each variant in the merged map shown in (B), with shorter arrows indicating better correspondence between the maps. The first row contains human datasets with BA.1, ordered by the presence of BA.2 and BA.5. The second row contains hamster datasets with BA.1. The third row contains remaining datasets without BA.1 that were not generated using CPE assays. Data for the maps in the bottom row were generated using CPE assays. (B) Shown is an antigenic map constructed by merging all titers of the 18 datasets. D614G, B.1.351, B.1.617.2, BA.1, BA.2, and BA.4/BA.5 are highlighted. A version of this map colored by variant is shown in fig. S53. In both panels, variants are colored by substitutions in the RBD. Blue indicates no substitutions in RBD relative to the ancestral variant, except S477N; this includes the ancestral (D614G and 614D), A.23.1, B.1.526, and B.1.526+S477N variants. Turquoise indicates variants with only the N501Y substitution in the RBD, including the B.1.1.7 and D614G+N501Y variants. Light green indicates variants with only the E484K substitution in the RBD, including the B.1.525, R.1, P.2, and B.1.526+E484K variants. Yellow indicates variants with the E484K and N501Y substitutions in the RBD, including the P.1 (+K417T), B.1.351 (+K417N), B.1.1.7+E484K, and B.1.621 (+R346K) variants. Orange indicates variants with the L452R (or Q, in the case of C.37) substitution in the RBD, including the C.36.3, C.37 (+F490S), B.1.429, B.1.617.2 (+T478K), B.1.617.2+K417N (+T478K), AY.4.2 (+T478K), AY.1+K417N (+T478K), and AY.2+K417N (+T478K) variants. Maroon indicates variants with L452R and E484Q, including the B.1.617.1 (+T478K), B.1.630 (+T478K), and AY.3+E484Q (+T478K) variants. Dark magenta indicates Omicron BA.1 and BA.1.1 variants. Magenta indicates Omicron BA.2, BA.2.12.1, and BA.3 variants. Light pink indicates Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants.

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