Background The SARS-CoV-2 virus has mutated and evolved since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic bringing into question the future effectiveness of current vaccines and antibody therapeutics. With evolution of the virus updated methods for the evaluation of the immune response in infected and vaccinated individuals are required to determine the durability of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 variants. Methods We developed a multiplexed surrogate virus neutralization test (plex-sVNT) that simultaneously measures the ability of antibodies in serum to inhibit binding between angiotensin converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) and 7 SARS-CoV-2 trimeric spike protein variants, including wild type, B.1.1.7(α), B.1.351(β), P.1(γ), B.1.617.2(δ), B.1.617.1(κ), and B.1.429(ε). The assay was validated against a plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT). We evaluated 170 samples from 97 COVID-19 patients and 281 samples from 188 individuals that received the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines. Results The plex-sVNT demonstrated >96% concordance with PRNT. Antibody neutralization activity was significantly reduced for all SARS-CoV-2 variants compared to wild type in both the infected and vaccinated cohorts. There was a decline in overall antibody neutralization activity, within both cohorts, out to 5 months post infection or vaccination, with the rate of decline being more significant for the vaccinated. Conclusions The plex-sVNT provides a correlative measure to PRNT and a convenient approach for evaluating antibody neutralization against SARS-CoV-2 variants. Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 variants is reduced compared to wild type and declines over the ensuing months after exposure or vaccination within each cohort, however it is still unknown what degree of neutralizing capacity is protective.

中文翻译：

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使用多重替代病毒中和试验评估感染和接种疫苗后针对 SARS-CoV-2 变体的中和抗体

背景 自 COVID-19 大流行开始以来，SARS-CoV-2 病毒已经发生变异和进化，这对当前疫苗和抗体疗法的未来有效性提出了质疑。随着病毒的进化，需要更新评估受感染和接种疫苗个体免疫反应的方法，以确定对 SARS-CoV-2 变体的免疫反应的持久性。方法 我们开发了一种多重替代病毒中和试验 (plex-sVNT)，可同时测量血清中抗体抑制血管紧张素转换酶 2 (ACE2) 与 7 种 SARS-CoV-2 三聚体刺突蛋白变体（包括野生型）之间结合的能力、B.1.1.7(α)、B.1.351(β)、P.1(γ)、B.1.617.2(δ)、B.1.617.1(κ) 和 B.1.429(ε)。该测定已针对斑块减少中和试验 (PRNT) 进行了验证。我们评估了来自 97 名 COVID-19 患者的 170 个样本和来自接受 Pfizer-BioNTech 或 Moderna mRNA 疫苗的 188 个人的 281 个样本。结果plex-sVNT与PRNT表现出＞96％的一致性。与野生型相比，在感染组和接种组中，所有 SARS-CoV-2 变体的抗体中和活性均显着降低。在两个队列中，在感染或接种疫苗后 5 个月内，总体抗体中和活性都有所下降，而接种疫苗的下降速度更为显着。结论 plex-sVNT 提供了一种与 PRNT 相关的测量方法，并为评估针对 SARS-CoV-2 变体的抗体中和作用提供了一种方便的方法。