Overview of Neutralization Assays and International Standard for Detecting SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibody

Kuan-Ting Liu; Yi-Ju Han; Guan-Hong Wu; Kuan-Ying A Huang; Peng-Nien Huang

doi:10.3390/v14071560

Overview of Neutralization Assays and International Standard for Detecting SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibody

Viruses. 2022 Jul 18;14(7):1560. doi: 10.3390/v14071560.

Authors

Kuan-Ting Liu^{1

2}, Yi-Ju Han^{1

2}, Guan-Hong Wu^{1

2}, Kuan-Ying A Huang^{1

3}, Peng-Nien Huang^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan.
² Graduate Institute of Biomedical Science, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan.
³ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan.
⁴ International Master Degree Program for Molecular Medicine in Emerging Viral Infections, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan.

Abstract

We aimed to review the existing literature on the different types of neutralization assays and international standards for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We comprehensively summarized the serological assays for detecting neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and demonstrated the importance of an international standard for calibrating the measurement of neutralizing antibodies. Following the coronavirus disease outbreak in December 2019, there was an urgent demand to detect neutralizing antibodies in patients or vaccinated people to monitor disease outcomes and determine vaccine efficacy. Therefore, many approaches were developed to detect neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, such as microneutralization assay, SARS-CoV-2 pseudotype virus assay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and rapid lateral flow assay. Given the many types of serological assays for quantifying the neutralizing antibody titer, the comparison of different assay results is a challenge. In 2020, the World Health Organization proposed the first international standard as a common unit to define neutralizing antibody titer and antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2. These standards are useful for comparing the results of different assays and laboratories.

Keywords: international standard for SARS-CoV-2; neutralizing antibody detection; serological assays.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Antibodies, Neutralizing
Antibodies, Viral
COVID-19* / diagnosis
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
Humans
Neutralization Tests / methods
SARS-CoV-2*
Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus

Substances

Antibodies, Neutralizing
Antibodies, Viral
Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus
spike protein, SARS-CoV-2

Grants and funding

This research received funding from the Chang Gung Medical Research Program (CORPD1J0061-63). This work was financially supported by the Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan (MOST 111-2634-F-182-001).