Prevalence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Neutralizing Antibodies in Egyptian Convalescent Plasma Donors

Mokhtar R Gomaa; Ahmed Kandeil; Ahmed Mostafa; Wael H Roshdy; Ahmed E Kayed; Mahmoud Shehata; Omnia Kutkat; Yassmin Moatasim; Ahmed El Taweel; Sara H Mahmoud; Mina Nabil Kamel; Noura M Abo Shama; Mohamed El Sayes; Rabeh El-Shesheny; Osama H Bakheet; Mohamed A Elgohary; Mohamed Elbadry; Naguib N Nassif; Salwa H Ahmed; Ibrahim Y Abdel Messih; Ghazi Kayali; Mohamed A Ali

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.596851

Prevalence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Neutralizing Antibodies in Egyptian Convalescent Plasma Donors

Front Microbiol. 2020 Nov 24:11:596851. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.596851. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Mokhtar R Gomaa¹, Ahmed Kandeil¹, Ahmed Mostafa¹, Wael H Roshdy², Ahmed E Kayed¹, Mahmoud Shehata¹, Omnia Kutkat¹, Yassmin Moatasim¹, Ahmed El Taweel¹, Sara H Mahmoud¹, Mina Nabil Kamel¹, Noura M Abo Shama¹, Mohamed El Sayes¹, Rabeh El-Shesheny¹, Osama H Bakheet³, Mohamed A Elgohary⁴, Mohamed Elbadry⁵, Naguib N Nassif⁶, Salwa H Ahmed⁷, Ibrahim Y Abdel Messih⁸, Ghazi Kayali^{9

10}, Mohamed A Ali¹

Affiliations

¹ Center of Scientific Excellence for Influenza Viruses, National Research Center, Giza, Egypt.
² Central Public Health Laboratory, Ministry of Health and Population, Cairo, Egypt.
³ Department of Clinical Pathology, Military Medical Academy, Cairo, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Tropical Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁵ Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology Department, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt.
⁶ Preventive Medicine Department, Aswan Health Affairs Directorate, Aswan, Egypt.
⁷ Clinical Pharmacology Department, Aswan Fever Hospital, Aswan, Egypt.
⁸ Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁹ Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas, Houston, Texas, TX, United States.
¹⁰ Human Link, Baabda, Lebanon.

Abstract

Using convalescent plasma as immunotherapy is an old method for treatment of infectious diseases. Several countries have recently allowed the use of such therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients especially those who are critically ill. A similar program is currently being tested in Egypt. Here, we tested 227 plasma samples from convalescent donors in Egypt for neutralizing antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) using a microneutralization (MN) assay. A third of the tested samples did not have antibody titers and 58% had titers between 1:10 and 1:80. Only 12% had titers >1:160. We also compared MN assays using different virus concentrations, plaque reduction neutralization (PRNT) assays, and a chemiluminescence assay that measures immunoglobulin G (IgG) binding to N and S proteins of SARS-CoV-2. Our results indicated that a MN assay using 100 TCID50/ml provides comparable results to PRNT and allows for high throughput testing.

Keywords: Egypt; microneutralization assay; neutralizing antibodies; plasma donors; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

Copyright © 2020 Gomaa, Kandeil, Mostafa, Roshdy, Kayed, Shehata, Kutkat, Moatasim, El Taweel, Mahmoud, Kamel, Abo Shama, El Sayes, El-Shesheny, Bakheet, Elgohary, Elbadry, Nassif, Ahmed, Abdel Messih, Kayali and Ali.