40 research outputs found

    Long-Term Persistence of Spike Antibody and Predictive Modeling of Antibody Dynamics Following Infection with SARS-CoV-2

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    BACKGROUND: Antibodies to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been shown to neutralize the virus in-vitro and prevent disease in animal challenge models upon re-exposure. However, current understanding of SARS-CoV-2 humoral dynamics and longevity is conflicting. METHODS: The Co-Stars study prospectively enrolled 3679 healthcare workers to comprehensively characterize the kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S), receptor-binding-domain (RBD) and nucleoprotein (N) antibodies in parallel. Participants screening seropositive had serial monthly serological testing for a maximum of 7 months with the Mesoscale Discovery Assay. Survival analysis determined the proportion of sero-reversion while two hierarchical Gamma models predicted the upper- and lower-bounds of long-term antibody trajectory. RESULTS: A total of 1163 monthly samples were provided from 349 seropositive participants. At 200 days post-symptoms, >95% of participants had detectable S-antibodies compared to 75% with detectable N-antibodies. S-antibody was predicted to remain detectable in 95% of participants until 465 days [95%CI 370-575] using a 'continuous-decay' model and indefinitely using a 'decay-to-plateau' model to account for antibody secretion by long-lived plasma cells. S-antibody titers correlated strongly with surrogate neutralization in-vitro (R 2=0.72). N-antibodies, however, decayed rapidly with a half-life of 60 days [95%CI 52-68]. CONCLUSIONS: The Co-STAR's study data presented here provides evidence for long-term persistence of neutralizing S-antibodies. This has important implications for the duration of functional immunity following SARS-CoV-2 infection. In contrast, the rapid decay of N-antibodies must be considered in future seroprevalence studies and public health decision-making. This is the first study to establish a mathematical framework capable of predicting long-term humoral dynamics following SARS-CoV-2 infection

    Tangential Wounds of Scalp and Skull

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    Bispecific antibody-mediated detection of the staphylococcus aureus thermonuclease

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    We report a novel fluorescence-based immunoassay which enables qualitative detection of the Staphylococcus aureus Thermonuclease (TNase) enzyme, thus providing confirmation of the presence of the S. aureus bacterium in vitro. The biomedical problem of chronic wound healing and the continuing emergence of antibiotic-resistant species is addressed in the development of a detection system capable of the rapid, real-time assessment of bacterial load and diversity. The use of bispecific antibodies (BsAb) provides integration of the molecular detection and signal response components of a standard immunoassay due to steric hindrance-mediated release of prebound fluorescent reporter molecules upon specific binding of TNase to adjacent sites. Rhodamine and fluorescein-labeled hemocyanin from Megathura crenulata (KLH) were prepared as effective immunoconjugates containing a sensitive fluorescent reporter moiety. BsAb that both specifically quenched the fluorescence of the reporter conjugate and bound the TNase target antigen were produced using cell fusion techniques. Assays were then performed to analyze the properties attributable to the steric hindrance-mediated release of the fluorescent reporter molecules upon adjacent TNase binding. This was performed by monitoring the intensity of fluorescence emission of the immunogenic reporter conjugate released into an aqueous environment at 578 and 520 nm, respectively
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