Simultaneous measurement of 96 samples for anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgM, IgG and IgA antibodies by SPRi
Figure 1 shows the principle of the SPRi assay for determining the isotype fractions. In Panel A, 96 sera are spotted on an RBD coupled sensor. In Panel B, the sensor is placed in the SPRimager and real-time measurements were performed during three concatenated injections of anti-IgM, anti-IgG and anti-IgA. Panel C shows the SPR reflection image after the injection of the anti-isotype antibodies of the 96 sera. Panel D shows typical sensorgrams of 3 sera (red, blue, green). The red curve represents a serum with high IgM (Rmax 1940 RU), very high IgG (5012 RU) and weak IgA (243 RU). The blue curve shows a serum with moderate IgM (845 RU), a moderate IgG (1215 RU) and a weak IgA (464 RU). The green curve shows a serum with a weak IgM (203 RU) a high IgG (3950 RU) and a high IgA (3796 RU). Panel E shows a patient overlay for calculating the Rmax values of anti-IgM, anti-IgG and anti-IgA which is proportional to the bound IgM, IgG and IgA anti-RBD. The baselines are zeroed and the injections are aligned. This enables the application of a biphasic binding model for calculation of Rmax for the three isotypes. Sensorgrams were measured for all samples simultaneously and shown as an overlay plot in Figure 2. Repetitive measurements using the same sera showed that the RU level variation was less than 5%.
In Figure 3 the IgM, IgG, IgA and total IgG SPRi RU values are shown and samples are divided into those that are CoViD-19 PCR negative and the CoViD-19 PCR positive. The latter were subdivided into those with onset of disease symptoms of less than 10 days and those with onset of disease symptoms more than 10 days. Differences between the groups were all significant (p<0.001 non-parametric Mann Whitney U test). Additional data is shown in supplementary Figure 3, 4 and 5)
Comparison with ELISA and ECLIA
Using ROC curves, the optimal threshold and AUC were calculated for each parameter (IgG,IgA,IgM, total Ig (all SPR), ELISA IgG and ECLIA Ig). The calculations were performed on 42 positive samples from positive patients and 46 samples from controls. The obtained thresholds and AUCs are shown in Figure 4D. The calculated threshold for the ELISA was in line with the recommendations from the manufacturer, the calculated threshold for the ECLIA was lower than the recommendation from the manufacturer. With the thresholds, the sensitivity and specificity could be calculated.
The IgG SPR results were correlated with the S1 domain ELISA results and the total Ig SPR results were correlated with the ECLIA total Ig results. As can be seen in Figure 4, the correlation between IgG SPR and ELISA SPR was superior (n= 101, Pearson’s r 0.95) compared to the total Ig SPR and ECLIA Ig (n= 116, Pearson’s r 0.73). This can be explained by the fact that the ECLIA contains the nucleocapsid protein as antigen, whereas the ELISA uses the S1 domain protein, which contains the RBD antigen used in the SPRi. The SPRi results were correlated with clinical and laboratory parameters known to have a relation with disease activity and/or severity as CRP, ferritin, procalcitonin, lymphocyte count, lactate dehydrogenase (LD) and d-dimer. Only a slight correlation was found between the IgG SPR results and the D-dimer level. (n= 22 , Pearson’s r =0.77). Although the mean level of IgG SPR was higher in patients with pulmonary embolism compared to patients without, this did not reach significance (p=0.17)
Strength of binding measurement of anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD IgG, IgA and IgM
Ligand density can cause analyte to rebind during its dissociation. Rebinding results in an overestimation of the off-rate value. [15]. To reduce the rebinding effect of dissociating molecules, we added free RBD in a concentration of 15 µg /ml to the running buffer. In 5 minutes, we observed a mixed degree of dissociation of the various and longitudinal samples (see supplementary Figure 2) and the dissociation or off-rate constant can be calculated and plotted as a function of the days of symptoms onset (see Figure 5). During the development of the disease, we observed a smaller off-rate indicating that the avidity or quality of the antibodies improves. So, the patients are producing a better-quality repertoire of polyclonal anti-RBD antibodies over time. For all longitudinal samples this trend in off-rate is observed (strength of binding becomes better). The method is reliable, independent of concentration, high throughput and accurate for profiling the immunity of patients. Our method revealed the trends of maturation of the overall quality of the antibodies.
SARS-CoV-2 binds the ACE2 receptor stronger in comparison to SARS-CoV. This implies that antibodies need to have high affinity to compete and neutralize the virus. Our method for profiling the immunity in terms of isotype concentration and strength of binding enables to reveal this effect in a high-throughput manner. High avidity anti-RBD antibodies at low concentration are perhaps more effective for neutralizing the SARS-CoV2 than a higher concentration anti-RBD antibodies with lower affinity.
It is also worthy of mention that this approach can be readily applied to monitoring immune response in other types of disease as well. Any protein targeted by an immune response can be immobilized to the sensor surface allowing for a very high-throughput, quantitative, and reproducible means of characterizing immunity. The real-time monitoring of signals in SPRi makes it well suited too for rapid deployment and optimization. This feature is valuable for instances where screening must be done against evolving forms of antigen, such as in the case of mutations.
In conclusion, we demonstrate a high-throughput SPR imaging platform for 384 sera suited for the rapid detection of the strength of binding of SARS-CoV-2-associated antibodies of isotypes IgG, IgM and IgA. We measured 119 sera including longitudinal samples obtained from 53 unique positively PCR-tested patients with critical, severe, moderate and mild symptoms and control sera. Although the patients show a high variation in immune response composition; generally, the strength of binding showed an affinity maturation over time.
In this workflow, the maturation effect of the affinity of antibodies can be ranked and quantified precisely with the goal of improving clinical outcomes. In addition to following the strength of binding and concentration of anti-RBD antibodies for CoViD-19 patients, this assay is ideally suited for monitoring of healthy people who will be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 in upcoming clinical trials. The SPRi assay described here can provide critical insights in determining if the final quality of the IgG response after vaccination is adequate to generate neutralizing antibodies with sufficient affinity for clearing the virus.
Additionally, in order to gain the highest success rate in developing therapeutic neutralizing mAb’s, individuals and donors for passive immunization programs should be screened for the highest strength of binding immune response against the immunogenic proteins of SARS-Cov-2.