IMR Press / FBL / Volume 28 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.31083/j.fbl2802040
Open Access Original Research
B-Cell Receptor Features and Database Establishment in Recovered COVID-19 Patients by Combining 5'-RACE with PacBio Sequencing
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1 NHC Key Laboratory of Medical Immunology, Peking University, 100191 Beijing, China
2 Key Laboratory of Molecular Immunology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 100191 Beijing, China
3 Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, 100191 Beijing, China
4 Department of Hepatology, Fifth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, 100191 Beijing, China
5 Department of Transfusion Medicine, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of PLA, 430000 Wuhan, Hubei, China
6 Department of Microbiology and Infectious Disease Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University Health Science Center, 100191 Beijing, China
7 Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Science, Southern Medical University, 510515 Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
8 Peking University International Cancer Institute, Health Science Center, Peking University, 100191 Beijing, China
*Correspondence: qiuxy@bjmu.edu.cn (Xiaoyan Qiu)
These authors contributed equally.
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2023, 28(2), 40; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.fbl2802040
Submitted: 21 April 2022 | Revised: 14 September 2022 | Accepted: 26 September 2022 | Published: 28 February 2023
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: Antibodies induced by viral infection can not only prevent subsequent virus infection, but can also mediate pathological injury following infection. Therefore, understanding the B-cell receptor (BCR) repertoire of either specific neutralizing or pathological antibodies from patients convalescing from Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection is of benefit for the preparation of therapeutic or preventive antibodies, and may provide insight into the mechanisms of COVID-19 pathological injury. Methods: In this study, we used a molecular approach of combining 5’ Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends (5’-RACE) with PacBio sequencing to analyze the BCR repertoire of all 5 IgH and 2 IgL genes in B-cells harvested from 35 convalescent patients after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Results: We observed numerous BCR clonotypes within most COVID-19 patients, but not in healthy controls, which validates the association of the disease with a prototypical immune response. In addition, many clonotypes were found to be frequently shared between different patients or different classes of antibodies. Conclusions: These convergent clonotypes provide a resource to identify potential therapeutic/prophylactic antibodies, or identify antibodies associated with pathological effects following infection with SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords
COVID-19
BCR repertoire
5'RACE
PacBio sequencing
neutralizing antibody
Funding
2020YFA0707801/China Ministry of Science and Technology
82030044/National Natural Science Foundation of China
BMU2020HKYZX004/Discipline Construction Project of Peking University Health Science Center
Figures
Fig. 1.
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