Direct comparison of SARS-CoV-2 variant specific neutralizing antibodies in human and hamster sera

Annika Rössler; Antonia Netzl; Ludwig Knabl; Samuel H Wilks; Barbara Mühlemann; Sina Türeli; Anna Mykytyn; Dorothee von Laer; Bart L Haagmans; Derek J Smith; Janine Kimpel

doi:10.1038/s41541-024-00888-y

Direct comparison of SARS-CoV-2 variant specific neutralizing antibodies in human and hamster sera

NPJ Vaccines. 2024 May 18;9(1):85. doi: 10.1038/s41541-024-00888-y.

Authors

Annika Rössler^#^{1

2}, Antonia Netzl^#³, Ludwig Knabl⁴, Samuel H Wilks³, Barbara Mühlemann^{5

6}, Sina Türeli³, Anna Mykytyn⁷, Dorothee von Laer¹, Bart L Haagmans⁷, Derek J Smith⁸, Janine Kimpel⁹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Virology, Department of Hygiene, Microbiology and Public Health, Medical University of Innsbruck, Peter-Mayr-Str. 4b, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria.
² Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ University of Cambridge, Centre for Pathogen Evolution, Department of Zoology, Cambridge, UK.
⁴ Tyrolpath Obrist Brunhuber GmbH, Hauptplatz 4, 6511, Zams, Austria.
⁵ Institute of Virology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Ins+titute of Health, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
⁶ German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), partner site Charité, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
⁷ Viroscience Department, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
⁸ University of Cambridge, Centre for Pathogen Evolution, Department of Zoology, Cambridge, UK. djs200@cam.ac.uk.
⁹ Institute of Virology, Department of Hygiene, Microbiology and Public Health, Medical University of Innsbruck, Peter-Mayr-Str. 4b, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria. Janine.Kimpel@i-med.ac.at.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Antigenic characterization of newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants is important to assess their immune escape and judge the need for future vaccine updates. To bridge data obtained from animal sera with human sera, we analyzed neutralizing antibody titers in human and hamster single infection sera in a highly controlled setting using the same authentic virus neutralization assay performed in one laboratory. Using a Bayesian framework, we found that titer fold changes in hamster sera corresponded well to human sera and that hamster sera generally exhibited higher reactivity.

Abstract

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