Mass vaccination of the global population against SARS-CoV-2 will, we hope, turn the tide against this devastating pandemic. To complement vaccinations, better tools are needed to enable viral infections and immunological protection to be monitored. Accurate tools provide sound data for informed decision-making at many levels, from personal to governmental. The measurement of viral RNA is currently routinely used to detect active infections, but only gives a positive result during infection and is unable to reveal historic infections. Tests involving a detection of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies can reveal prior exposures to virus and can measure anti-viral immune responses induced after natural infection or after vaccination. They may eventually also be used to predict an individual's likelihood of becoming re-infected. Here, we report on the development of a sensitive ELISA technique to detect multiple isotypes of antibodies against the spike glycoprotein, in samples of both serum and saliva. This paper provides an important step towards understanding the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and may therefore eventually help us to effectively control it.

中文翻译：

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抗刺突抗体的灵敏检测有助于加深对 SARS-CoV-2 发病机制的了解


我们希望，为全球人口大规模接种 SARS-CoV-2 疫苗将扭转这场毁灭性大流行的局面。为了补充疫苗接种，需要更好的工具来监测病毒感染和免疫保护。准确的工具为从个人到政府的各个层面的明智决策提供可靠的数据。病毒RNA的测量目前常规用于检测活动性感染，但只能在感染期间给出阳性结果，无法揭示历史感染情况。涉及检测 SARS-CoV-2 特异性抗体的测试可以揭示之前是否接触过病毒，并可以测量自然感染或疫苗接种后诱导的抗病毒免疫反应。它们最终也可能被用来预测一个人再次感染的可能性。在此，我们报告了一种灵敏 ELISA 技术的开发，该技术可检测血清和唾液样本中针对刺突糖蛋白的多种同种型抗体。本文为了解 SARS-CoV-2 的免疫反应迈出了重要的一步，因此可能最终帮助我们有效地控制它。