J. Case, P. W. Rothlauf, Rita E. Chen, Zhuoming Liu, Haiyan Zhao, A. S. Kim, Louis-Marie Bloyet, Qiru Zeng, Stephen Tahan, L. Droit, M. Ilagan, Michael A. Tartell, G. Amarasinghe, J. Henderson, S. Miersch, M. Ustav, S. Sidhu, H. Virgin, David Wang, Siyuan Ding, D. Corti, E. Theel, D. Fremont, M. Diamond, S. Whelan
Cell Host & Microbe, 2020
Abstract Antibody-based interventions against SARS-CoV-2 could limit morbidity, mortality, and possibly transmission. An anticipated correlate of such countermeasures is the level of neutralizing antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which engages with host ACE2 receptor for entry. Using an infectious molecular clone of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) expressing eGFP as a marker of infection, we replaced the glycoprotein gene (G) with the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 (VSV-eGFP-SARS-CoV-2) and developed a high-throughput imaging-based neutralization assay at biosafety level 2. We also developed a focus-reduction neutralization test with a clinical isolate of SARS-CoV-2 at biosafety level 3. Comparing the neutralizing activities of various antibodies and ACE2-Fc soluble decoy protein in both assays revealed a high degree of concordance. These assays will help define correlates of protection for antibody-based countermeasures and vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, replication-competent VSV-eGFP-SARS-CoV-2 provides a tool for testing inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 mediated entry under reduced biosafety containment.
Cited by 85 publications.
Field of study: Medicine