Engineering luminescent biosensors for point-of-care SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection

Susanna K Elledge1, Xin X Zhou1, James R Byrnes1, Alexander J Martinko2, Irene Lui1, Katarina Pance1, Shion A Lim1, Jeff E Glasgow1, Anum A Glasgow3, Keirstinne Turcios4, Nikita S Iyer4, Leonel Torres4,5, Michael J Peluso5, Timothy J Henrich4, Taia T Wang6,7, Cristina M Tato6, Kevin K Leung1, Bryan Greenhouse4,5, James A Wells8,9,10

  1. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  2. Soteria Biotherapeutics, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  3. Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  4. Division of Experimental Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco CA, USA.
  5. Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  6. Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  7. Departments of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
  8. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. jim.wells@ucsf.edu.
  9. Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA, USA. jim.wells@ucsf.edu.
  10. Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. jim.wells@ucsf.edu.

Abstract

Current serology tests for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies mainly take the form of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassays or lateral flow assays, which are either laborious, expensive or lacking sufficient sensitivity and scalability. Here we present the development and validation of a rapid, low-cost, solution-based assay to detect antibodies in serum, plasma, whole blood and to a lesser extent saliva, using rationally designed split luciferase antibody biosensors. This new assay, which generates quantitative results in 30 min, substantially reduces the complexity and improves the scalability of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) antibody tests. This assay is well-suited for point-of-care, broad population testing, and applications in low-resource settings, for monitoring host humoral responses to vaccination or viral infection.

Presented By Susanna Elledge | ORCID iD

Biotechnology, Medicine, Immunology & MicrobiologyNicholas Liao2021-08 (Aug)