新型冠狀病毒 (SARS-CoV-2) 所具有的高度傳染性,使得科研人員必須在 P3 等級實驗室裡進行操作,此環境條件限制加上活病毒株取得不易等問題,都侷限拖緩了新冠病毒的研發腳步。為了讓科研人員能夠更安全便利地進行中和抗體藥物篩選和疫苗開發工作,中國食品藥品檢定研究院聶建輝等人建立了基於 SARS-CoV-2 偽病毒 (pseudovirus) 的中和抗體檢測平台,該平台於 P2 等級實驗室即可操作。他們首先利用基因轉殖技術將水泡性口炎病毒 (vesicular stomatitis virus, VSV) 進行改造,以螢火蟲冷光酵素基因 (firefly luciferase) 取代其原本的外套膜表面醣蛋白“G 蛋白”基因。接著將攜帶有 SARS-CoV-2 棘蛋白基因 (spike protein, S protein) 的 pcDNA3.1.S2 表現質體轉染至 293T 細胞中,再以基因改造病毒 (G*ΔG-VSV) 感染此細胞,即可生產出外套膜表面披覆有 SARS-CoV-2 棘蛋白的 SARS-CoV-2 偽病毒。
透過攜帶有 luciferase 報導基因的 SARS-CoV-2 偽病毒,作者建立了以細胞內 luciferase 表現量減少程度作為中和抗體活性指標的檢測平台,該平台採用 96 孔微量盤型式進行,每個 well 建議接種 5 x 10⁴ 的 Huh7 細胞與 650 TCID₅₀ 的 SARS-CoV-2 偽病毒,並以 britelite™ plus 冷光酵素受質以及 EnSight® 多功能微量盤檢測儀進行 luciferase 表現量分析與訊號偵測(圖 1)。作者以新冠肺炎痊癒者的恢復期血清與未染疫者血清驗證了此平台的效能與專一性,其結果數據可參見圖 2 [2]。

Fig. 1. Workflow for the pseudovirus neutralization assay for SARS-CoV-2. The EnSight® multimode plate reader offers best-in-class luminescence detection technology at high throughput rates (less than 1 min per 96-well plate) and can support biologics, vaccines, and small molecule research. The britelite™ plus homogeneous luciferase reporter gene assay system is designed to provide maximum signal intensity for assays requiring the utmost sensitivity. IMAGE © PerkinElmer [3].

Fig. 2. Validation of the SARS-CoV-2 PBNA. (A) Specificity of the PBNA. A negative sample panel of seventy-four human and fortysix mouse serum samples were used to determine the specificity of this assay. (B) Inhibition curves for two SARS-CoV-2 convalescent patient serum samples and two negative serum samples derived from human and mouse. Typical four-parameter inhibition curves were observed for these two samples between log-transformed dilution and inhibition rate. The initial dilutions for positive and negative samples were 1:30 and 1:10 respectively, followed by 3-fold serial dilution. (C) Linear range for the PBNA. When the inhibition rate is in the range of 20%–80%, there is a linear relationship between the readout of the test sample and its dilution. (D) Reproducibility of the PBNA. A mixture of two SARS-CoV-2 coalescent patient serum samples was tested a total of 18 times on individual plates in three independent runs. IMAGE © Emerg Microbes Infect. 2020 Dec;9(1):680-686. Fig. 5 [2].
中國北京大學未來基因診斷高精尖創新中心謝曉亮教授研究團隊使用單細胞定序技術從 60 位新冠肺炎痊癒者的恢復期血液中篩選出 149 種具有中和潛力的單株抗體,並沿用聶建輝等人建立的 SARS-CoV-2 偽病毒中和抗體檢測平台進一步驗證找出 7 種具有強力中和效果的單株抗體,其中表現最佳的抗體 BD-368-2 已經由動物實驗證實不僅具有治療效果,並且能對健康小鼠提供短期保護效果使其免於 SARS-CoV-2 感染。該研究成果已於 2020 年 5 月線上刊登於《Cell》期刊 [4]。
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