Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, spread rapidly to all regions of the world, causing the global pandemic in March 2020. The preventive method against the viral infection currently adopted by several countries is vaccination. A large number of clinical studies are underway with the aim of finding effective drugs or procedures against the disease. One option is the immunotherapy with convalescent plasma. This approach was previously used against other serious infectious diseases such as SARS, MERS and Ebola, for example, having improved the survival rate of patients. Although potentially effective, therapy with convalescent plasma carries risks, such as possible immunological reactions against serum components and risk of transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI). Serum from convalescents and vaccinated individuals against COVID-19 contains neutralizing antibodies against the virus, but also non-specific antibodies and a range of other compounds. Isolating only neutralizing antibodies for the treatment of patients could make it significantly more effective, in addition to reducing the possibility of adverse reactions. In this project, we propose the isolation of B cells and specific antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 from plasma of vaccines and sequencing by methodologies based on transcriptomics and mass spectrometry. After determining the sequences of the variable regions of the light and heavy chains, we will express the complete antibody in HEK293T cells. Finally, we will evaluate the affinity and recognition sensitivity of antibodies against the viral proteins and the neutralization effectiveness against the active virus in Vero E6 cell cultures. (AU)
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