1. Rapid and cost-effective process based on insect larvae for scale-up production of SARS-COV-2 spike protein for serological COVID-19 testing
- Author
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Aldana Trabucchi, Matías Fingermann, Silvina Noemi Valdez, Osvaldo Cascone, María Gabriela López, Ruben F. Iacono, Susana Vázquez, Leonardo G. Alonso, Federico Javier Wolman, Silvina Sonia Bombicino, Joaquín Manuel Birenbaum, Juan Ignacio Marfía, Gregorio Juan Mc Callum, Juan Mauricio Minoia, María Victoria Miranda, Alexandra Marisa Targovnik, Oscar Taboga, Adriana Victoria Sabljic, and Ignacio Smith
- Subjects
Insect Larvae ,Testing ,Bioengineering ,insect larvae ,Larvas de Insectos ,Spodoptera ,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ,Virus ,Article ,law.invention ,Serology ,COVID-19 Serological Testing ,Rachiplusia nu ,Antigen ,law ,Immunity ,Protein biosynthesis ,Sf9 Cells ,SPIKE ,Animals ,antibodies ,purl.org/becyt/ford/3.4 [https] ,biology ,SARS-CoV-2 ,SEROLOGY ,fungi ,Proteins ,COVID-19 ,Articles ,Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 ,biology.organism_classification ,Virology ,Nucleopolyhedroviruses ,Recombinant Proteins ,Ensayo ,Larva ,Proteínas ,Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus ,Recombinant DNA ,biology.protein ,SARS‐CoV‐2 coronavirus ,purl.org/becyt/ford/3 [https] ,ELISA ,trimeric spike ,Antibody ,Coronavirus del Síndrome Respiratorio Agudo Grave 2 ,Biotechnology - Abstract
Serology testing for COVID‐19 is important in evaluating active immune response against SARS‐CoV‐2, studying the antibody kinetics, and monitoring reinfections with genetic variants and new virus strains, in particular, the duration of antibodies in virus‐exposed individuals and vaccine‐mediated immunity. In this study, recombinant S protein of SARS‐CoV‐2 was expressed in Rachiplusia nu, an important agronomic plague. One gram of insect larvae produces an amount of S protein sufficient for 150 determinations in the ELISA method herein developed. We established a rapid production process for SARS‐CoV‐2 S protein that showed immunoreactivity for anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 antibodies and was used as a single antigen for developing the ELISA method with high sensitivity (96.2%) and specificity (98.8%). Our findings provide an efficient and cost‐effective platform for large‐scale S protein production, and the scale‐up is linear, thus avoiding the use of complex equipment like bioreactors., A rapid and cost‐effective process for scale‐up the production of SARS‐CoV‐2 Spike protein was developed in this study. The authors obtained high‐quality protein (trimeric and glycosylated state) after one step of purification from Rachiplusia nu larvae. Our results demonstrate that the Spike protein produced in insect larvae is immunoreactive against the sera from COVID‐19 patients and can be used as a single antigen in immunoassays for the detection of anti‐SARS‐Cov‐2 antibodies
- Published
- 2021