SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies Detection Kit (B.1.351 Variant, Beta)

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are enveloped non-segmented positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses and can infect respiratory, gastrointestinal, hepatic and central nervous system of human and many wild animals. Recently, a new severe acute respiratory syndrome β-coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 has emerged, which causes an epidemic of acute respiratory syndrome (called coronavirus human disease 2019 or COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 contains 4 structural proteins, including Envelope (E), Membrane (M), Nucleocapsid (N) and Spike (S), which is a transmembrane protein, composed of two subunits S1 and S2. The S1 subunit contains a receptor binding domain (RBD), which binds to the cell surface receptor Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) present at the surface of epithelial cells, causing mainly infection of human respiratory cells. The SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies Detection Kit (B.1.351 Variant, Beta) contains key reagents required to test the presence of functional neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 (variant B.1.351) present in the serum or plasma or/and to test the cross-reaction of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies directed to previous variants. It is an easy and fast alternative to the classical neutralization assay using Vero E6 cells. This Detection Kit is based on a colorimetric reaction, which measures the binding of the RBD of the Spike S protein from SARS-CoV-2 to its human receptor ACE2. The presence of neutralizing/blocking antibodies in the samples are detected by reduction of signal indicating the inhibition of the Spike-ACE2 binding. The new variant of SARS-CoV-2, called B.1.351 (Beta), was detected in South Africa. This variant carries three mutations in the RBD at the positions 417, 484 and 501 (K417N, E484K, N501Y) and is associated with a higher viral load, which may suggest potential for increased transmissibility.