Antibody responses to endemic coronaviruses modulate COVID-19 convalescent plasma functionality
William R. Morgenlander, … , Aaron A.R. Tobian, H. Benjamin Larman
William R. Morgenlander, … , Aaron A.R. Tobian, H. Benjamin Larman
Published February 11, 2021
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2021;131(7):e146927. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI146927.
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Research Article Immunology Infectious disease

Antibody responses to endemic coronaviruses modulate COVID-19 convalescent plasma functionality

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 (CoV2) antibody therapies, including COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP), monoclonal antibodies, and hyperimmune globulin, are among the leading treatments for individuals with early COVID-19 infection. The functionality of convalescent plasma varies greatly, but the association of antibody epitope specificities with plasma functionality remains uncharacterized. We assessed antibody functionality and reactivities to peptides across the CoV2 and the 4 endemic human coronavirus (HCoV) genomes in 126 CCP donations. We found strong correlation between plasma functionality and polyclonal antibody targeting of CoV2 spike protein peptides. Antibody reactivity to many HCoV spike peptides also displayed strong correlation with plasma functionality, including pan-coronavirus cross-reactive epitopes located in a conserved region of the fusion peptide. After accounting for antibody cross-reactivity, we identified an association between greater alphacoronavirus NL63 antibody responses and development of highly neutralizing antibodies against CoV2. We also found that plasma preferentially reactive to the CoV2 spike receptor binding domain (RBD), versus the betacoronavirus HKU1 RBD, had higher neutralizing titer. Finally, we developed a 2-peptide serosignature that identifies plasma donations with high anti-spike titer, but that suffer from low neutralizing activity. These results suggest that analysis of coronavirus antibody fine specificities may be useful for selecting desired therapeutics and understanding the complex immune responses elicited by CoV2 infection.

Authors

William R. Morgenlander, Stephanie N. Henson, Daniel R. Monaco, Athena Chen, Kirsten Littlefield, Evan M. Bloch, Eric Fujimura, Ingo Ruczinski, Andrew R. Crowley, Harini Natarajan, Savannah E. Butler, Joshua A. Weiner, Mamie Z. Li, Tania S. Bonny, Sarah E. Benner, Ashwin Balagopal, David Sullivan, Shmuel Shoham, Thomas C. Quinn, Susan H. Eshleman, Arturo Casadevall, Andrew D. Redd, Oliver Laeyendecker, Margaret E. Ackerman, Andrew Pekosz, Stephen J. Elledge, Matthew Robinson, Aaron A.R. Tobian, H. Benjamin Larman

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Figure 2

Defining coronavirus peptide epitopes targeted by COVID-19 convalescent plasma.

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Defining coronavirus peptide epitopes targeted by COVID-19 convalescent ...
(A) The percentages of samples in each group (Pre-COVID, n = 87; Low NT, n = 55; Medium NT, n = 39; and High NT, n = 32) with reactivity to a particular peptide were plotted according to the peptide’s position along each viral genome. Dominant regions are shaded. Amino acid residue number is included for the spike protein (S). Full genome plots are provided in Supplemental Figure 1. Gene products: spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M), and nucleocapsid (N). (B) Immunodominant regions of CoV2 S are mapped onto the CoV2 S structure (19). Trimeric spike is shown with the whole receptor binding domain (RBD) in yellow, the rest of S1 in gray, and S2 in blue. Immunodominant regions: 2 or RBD, 3 or S1/S2 cleavage site (CS), 4 or fusion peptide (FP), and 5 or heptad repeat 2 (HR2).