Frontiers in Immunology (Feb 2023)

B cell receptor repertoire analysis from autopsy samples of COVID-19 patients

  • Sadahiro Iwabuchi,
  • Tomohide Tsukahara,
  • Toshitugu Okayama,
  • Masahiro Kitabatake,
  • Hideki Motobayashi,
  • Shigeyuki Shichino,
  • Tadashi Imafuku,
  • Kenzaburo Yamaji,
  • Kyohei Miyamoto,
  • Shinobu Tamura,
  • Satoshi Ueha,
  • Toshihiro Ito,
  • Shin-ichi Murata,
  • Toshikazu Kondo,
  • Kazuho Ikeo,
  • Yutaka Suzuki,
  • Kouji Matsushima,
  • Michinori Kohara,
  • Toshihiko Torigoe,
  • Hiroki Yamaue,
  • Hiroki Yamaue,
  • Shinichi Hashimoto

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1034978
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14

Abstract

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Neutralizing antibodies against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are being developed world over. We investigated the possibility of producing artificial antibodies from the formalin fixation and paraffin-embedding (FFPE) lung lobes of a patient who died by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The B-cell receptors repertoire in the lung tissue where SARS-CoV-2 was detected were considered to have highly sensitive virus-neutralizing activity, and artificial antibodies were produced by combining the most frequently detected heavy and light chains. Some neutralizing effects against the SARS-CoV-2 were observed, and mixing two different artificial antibodies had a higher tendency to suppress the virus. The neutralizing effects were similar to the immunoglobulin G obtained from healthy donors who had received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. Therefore, the use of FFPE lung tissue, which preserves the condition of direct virus sensitization, to generate artificial antibodies may be useful against future unknown infectious diseases.

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