Performance comparison of micro-neutralization assays based on surrogate SARS-CoV-2 and WT SARS-CoV-2 in assessing virus-neutralizing capacity of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies

Inna Sekirov; Martin Petric; Erin Carruthers; David Lawrence; Tamara Pidduck; Jesse Kustra; Jonathan Laley; Min-Kuang Lee; Navdeep Chahil; Annie Mak; Paul N Levett; Emelissa Mendoza; Heidi Wood; Mike Drebot; Mel Krajden; Muhammad Morshed

doi:10.1099/acmi.0.000257

Performance comparison of micro-neutralization assays based on surrogate SARS-CoV-2 and WT SARS-CoV-2 in assessing virus-neutralizing capacity of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies

Access Microbiol. 2021 Aug 26;3(8):000257. doi: 10.1099/acmi.0.000257. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Inna Sekirov^{1

2}, Martin Petric^{1

2}, Erin Carruthers¹, David Lawrence¹, Tamara Pidduck¹, Jesse Kustra¹, Jonathan Laley¹, Min-Kuang Lee¹, Navdeep Chahil¹, Annie Mak¹, Paul N Levett^{1

2}, Emelissa Mendoza³, Heidi Wood³, Mike Drebot³, Mel Krajden^{1

2}, Muhammad Morshed^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ British Columbia Centre for Disease Control Public Health Laboratory, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
² Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
³ National Microbiology Laboratory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Abstract

We compared neutralization assays using either the wild-type severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus or surrogate neutralization markers, using characterized sera. We found the results of the neutralization assays 75 % concordant overall and 80 % concordant for samples with high antibody levels. This demonstrates that commercial surrogate SARS-CoV-2 assays offer the potential to assess anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies' neutralizing capacity outside CL-3 laboratory containment.

Keywords: COVID-19; PRNT; SARS CoV-2; enzyme immunoassay; microneutralization; neutralization; serology.