SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibody testing in Europe: towards harmonisation of neutralising antibody titres for better use of convalescent plasma and comparability of trial data

We compared the performance of SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibody testing between 12 European laboratories involved in convalescent plasma trials. Raw titres differed almost too-fold differences between laboratories when blind-testing 15 plasma samples. Calibration of titres in relation to the reference reagent and standard curve obtained by testing a dilution series reduced the inter-laboratory variability ca to-fold. The harmonisation of neutralising antibody quantification is a vital step towards determining the protective and therapeutic levels of neutralising antibodies.

Automated summary

The research compared the performance of SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibody testing among 12 European laboratories involved in convalescent plasma trials. It was found that there were significant differences in titres between laboratories during blind-testing, but calibration of titres reduced this variability. Harmonisation of neutralising antibody quantification is a crucial step towards determining protective and therapeutic levels of neutralising antibodies.