TY - JOUR T1 - Cross-reactive antibody response between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV infections JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2020.03.15.993097 SP - 2020.03.15.993097 AU - Huibin Lv AU - Nicholas C. Wu AU - Owen Tak-Yin Tsang AU - Meng Yuan AU - Ranawaka A. P. M. Perera AU - Wai Shing Leung AU - Ray T. Y. So AU - Jacky Man Chun Chan AU - Garrick K. Yip AU - Thomas Shiu Hong Chik AU - Yiquan Wang AU - Chris Yau Chung Choi AU - Yihan Lin AU - Wilson W. Ng AU - Jincun Zhao AU - Leo L. M. Poon AU - J. S. Malik Peiris AU - Ian A. Wilson AU - Chris K. P. Mok Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/17/2020.03.15.993097.abstract N2 - The World Health Organization has recently declared the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19, which is caused by a novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, as pandemic. There is currently a lack of knowledge in the antibody response elicited from SARS-CoV-2 infection. One major immunological question is concerning the antigenic differences between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV. We address this question by using plasma from patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-CoV, and plasma obtained from infected or immunized mice. Our results show that while cross-reactivity in antibody binding to the spike protein is common, cross-neutralization of the live viruses is rare, indicating the presence of non-neutralizing antibody response to conserved epitopes in the spike. Whether these non-neutralizing antibody responses will lead to antibody-dependent disease enhancement needs to be addressed in the future. Overall, this study not only addresses a fundamental question regarding the antigenicity differences between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, but also has important implications in vaccine development. ER -