Cross-reactive serum and memory B-cell responses to spike protein in SARS-CoV-2 and endemic coronavirus infection

Ge Song, Wan-ting He, Sean Callaghan, Fabio Anzanello, Deli Huang, James Ricketts, Jonathan L. Torres, Nathan Beutler, Linghang Peng, Sirena Vargas, Jon Cassell, Mara Parren, Linlin Yang, Caroline Ignacio, Davey M. Smith, James E. Voss, David Nemazee, Andrew B. Ward, Thomas Rogers, Dennis R. Burton () and Raiees Andrabi ()
Additional contact information
Ge Song: The Scripps Research Institute
Wan-ting He: The Scripps Research Institute
Sean Callaghan: The Scripps Research Institute
Fabio Anzanello: The Scripps Research Institute
Deli Huang: The Scripps Research Institute
James Ricketts: The Scripps Research Institute
Jonathan L. Torres: The Scripps Research Institute
Nathan Beutler: The Scripps Research Institute
Linghang Peng: The Scripps Research Institute
Sirena Vargas: The Scripps Research Institute
Jon Cassell: The Scripps Research Institute
Mara Parren: The Scripps Research Institute
Linlin Yang: The Scripps Research Institute
Caroline Ignacio: University of California, San Diego
Davey M. Smith: University of California, San Diego
James E. Voss: The Scripps Research Institute
David Nemazee: The Scripps Research Institute
Andrew B. Ward: The Scripps Research Institute
Thomas Rogers: The Scripps Research Institute
Dennis R. Burton: The Scripps Research Institute
Raiees Andrabi: The Scripps Research Institute

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Pre-existing immunity to seasonal endemic coronaviruses could have profound consequences for antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2, induced from natural infection or vaccination. A first step to establish whether pre-existing responses can impact SARS-CoV-2 infection is to understand the nature and extent of cross-reactivity in humans to coronaviruses. Here we compare serum antibody and memory B cell responses to coronavirus spike proteins from pre-pandemic and SARS-CoV-2 convalescent donors using binding and functional assays. We show weak evidence of pre-existing SARS-CoV-2 cross-reactive serum antibodies in pre-pandemic donors. However, we find evidence of pre-existing cross-reactive memory B cells that are activated during SARS-CoV-2 infection. Monoclonal antibodies show varying degrees of cross-reactivity with betacoronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1 and endemic coronaviruses. We identify one cross-reactive neutralizing antibody specific to the S2 subunit of the S protein. Our results suggest that pre-existing immunity to endemic coronaviruses should be considered in evaluating antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23074-3 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-23074-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23074-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().