Structural mapping of antibody landscapes to human betacoronavirus spike proteins

• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn2911
• Publication Date: 2022-05-04T17:57:55Z
• Authors: Sandhya Bangaru; Aleksandar Antana...; Nurgun Kose; Leigh M. Sewall; Abigail M. Jackson; Naveenchandra Sur...; Xiaoyan Zhan; Jonathan L. Torres; Jeffrey Copps; Alba Torrents de ...; James E. Crowe; Andrew B. Ward
• Keywords: Polyclonal antibodies; Epitope mapping; Betacoronavirus; spike protein

Preexisting immunity against seasonal coronaviruses (CoVs) represents an important variable in predicting antibody responses and disease severity to severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. We used electron microscopy-based polyclonal epitope mapping (EMPEM) characterize the specificities β-CoV spike proteins prepandemic (PP) sera or SARS-CoV-2 convalescent (SC) sera. observed that most PP had antibodies specific human CoVs (HCoVs) OC43 HKU1 while SC showed reactivity across all β-CoVs. Detailed molecular of spike-antibody complexes revealed epitopes were differentially targeted by preexisting serum antibodies. Our studies provide antigenic landscape β-HCoV spikes general population serving as a basis for cross-reactive analyses SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals.