N-terminally truncated nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2 as a better serological marker than whole nucleocapsid protein in evaluating the immunogenicity of inactivated SARS-CoV-2.
J Med Virol
; 93(3): 1732-1738, 2021 03.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1196496
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had led to a serious public health crisis, and no specific treatments or vaccines are available yet. A nucleocapsid protein (NP)-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) detection method is not only important in disease diagnosis, but is required for the evaluation of vaccine efficacy during the development of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. In this study, we expressed both the NP and N-terminally truncated NP (ΔN-NP) of SARS-CoV-2 in an Escherichia coli expression system and described the purification of the soluble recombinant NP and ΔN-NP in details. The identities of the NP and ΔN-NP were confirmed with mass spectrometry. We then used immunoglobulin G detection ELISAs to compare the sensitivity of NP and ΔN-NP in detecting anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. ΔN-NP showed greater sensitivity than NP in the analysis of serially diluted sera from mice and rabbits vaccinated with inactive SARS-CoV-2 and in human sera diluted 1400. ΔN-NP showed a positive detection rate similar to that of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein in human sera. We conclude that ΔN-NP is a better serological marker than NP for evaluating the immunogenicity of inactivated SARS-CoV-2.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Vaccines, Inactivated
/
Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus
/
Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Proteins
/
COVID-19 Vaccines
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
Antibodies, Viral
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Med Virol
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Jmv.26541
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