Development of a precision Luminex-based SARS-CoV-2 assay
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Göteborgs universitet - Avdelningen mikrobiologi och immunologi |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 993 000 |
| Project duration | May 2020 - March 2021 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Innovations to mitigate the crisis |
| Call | Finding new ways in the time of a crisis |
Important results from the project
The main aim of the project was to develop a precision serology test for SARS-CoV-2, based on linear B-cell epitopes. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a great need for such an approach, since conventional serology tests often deliver suboptimal accuracy due to the custom of using entire proteins as the unit of detection of antibodies. Our approach is to use epitopes as the unit of detection, which is much better aligned with the operations of the immune system.
Expected long term effects
We mapped all linear B-cell epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 proteome, and found a considerable cross-reactivity among serum samples obtained from before the pandemic to the majority of the epitopes. The most diagnostic epitopes/peptides were selected to develop a highly accurate Luminex-based serology assay. Our assay could be suitable for large-scale epidemiology studies and with further development also for potentially distinguishing between different SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.
Approach and implementation
Linear B-cell epitopes were mapped using peptide array analysis, whereby patient serum samples were tested for binding to overlapping 12-amino acid long peptides from the entirety of the SARS-CoV-2 proteome (n=3875 different peptides). The peptides with the most highly discriminatory IgG antibody-response between infected and pre-pandemic samples were selected for further assay setup using Luminex. We use biotin-coupled peptides captured on neutravidin-coupled Luminex microbeads, and created a highly accurate serology assay.