Honors Theses
Date of Award
Spring 5-9-2024
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Biology
First Advisor
Wayne Gray
Second Advisor
Colin Jackson
Third Advisor
Eden Tanner
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
In 2020, the world was introduced to COVID-19, a strain of Coronavirus that quickly caused a pandemic at the global scale. COVID-19 was reported to cause 5.94 million deaths between 2020-2021, and it continues to prevail amongst society in 2024. Many methods of preventing COVID-19 infection arose throughout this time period; however, mRNA vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein became the most effective way to protect the population from COVID-19’s destructive reign.
Although society has made significant scientific strides in Coronavirus testing and vaccination efforts, there are many improvements that must be made to better protect our society from COVID-19. This thesis intends to investigate the immunoblot assay as an antibody test and how it can be utilized to more accurately detect COVID-19 infection in contrast to the ELISA assay, which provides less consistent rates of accuracy. The protein of interest, the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein expressed in E.Coli, was isolated using transformation and column purification methods. Protein electrophoresis and chemiluminescent western blot analysis were used to ensure the protein’s purification. COVID-19 vaccinated patient serum and infected patient serum were analyzed using these methods to test for the presence of antibodies to the N protein. The results from these immunoblot assays were contrasted with results from similar assays utilizing the SARS-CoV-2 S protein. The SARS-CoV-2 N protein has proven to be more stable and less resistant to mutations across all new variants of COVID-19, as opposed to the virus’s S protein. By highlighting the presence of antibodies to the nucleocapsid in patient serum using immunoblot antibody testing, we hope to emphasize the future possibility of creating a one-time mRNA vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein.
Recommended Citation
Horn, Suzanna, "Detection of Sars-Cov-2 Nucleocapsid and Spike Antibodies in Serum of Covid-19 Vaccinated and Infected Patients Utilizing Immunoblot Assay" (2024). Honors Theses. 3114.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/3114
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