if
Johnson & Johnson use any work done by in the Gingras lab & Mubareka lab to develop vaccine. QuestCap will get royalty 5% from Sunnybrook (Mubareka lab) project and 3.5% from Sinai Health Foundation (Gingras lab). They can also sell royalty for one lump-sum payment.
Here is new study posted on August 29,2020
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.01.20166553v2 Abstract While the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 has been extensively studied in blood, relatively little is known about the mucosal immune response and its relationship to systemic antibody levels. Since SARS-CoV-2 initially replicates in the upper airway, the antibody response in the oral cavity is likely an important parameter that influences the course of infection, but how it correlates to the antibody response in serum is not known. Here, we profile by enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) IgG, IgA and IgM responses to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (full length trimer) and its receptor binding domain (RBD) in serum (n=496) and saliva (n=90) of acute and convalescent patients with laboratory-diagnosed COVID-19 ranging from 3-115 days post-symptom onset (PSO), compared to negative controls. Anti-CoV-2 antibody responses were readily detected in serum and saliva, with peak IgG levels attained by 16-30 days PSO. Whereas anti-CoV-2 IgA and IgM antibodies rapidly decayed, IgG antibodies remained relatively stable up to 105 days PSO in both biofluids. In a surrogate neutralization ELISA (snELISA), neutralization activity peaks by 31-45 days PSO and slowly declines, though a clear drop is detected at the last blood draw (105-115 days PSO). Lastly, IgG, IgM and to a lesser extent IgA responses to spike and RBD in the serum positively correlated with matched saliva samples. This study confirms that systemic and mucosal humoral IgG antibodies are maintained in the majority of COVID-19 patients for at least 3 months PSO. Based on their correlation with each other, IgG responses in saliva may serve as a surrogate measure of systemic immunity.
Competing Interest Statement Steven J Drews has acted as a content expert for respiratory viruses for Johnson & Johnson (Janssen). Work in the Gingras lab was partially funded by a contribution from QuestCap through the Sinai Health Foundation; QuestCap also funds work in the Mubareka lab. Work in the Gommerman lab unrelated to this project has been funded by EMD-Serono, Roche and Novartis.
Funding Statement This study was supported by an Ontario Together grant and funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR; #VR1-172711 and VR4-172732). Funding for the development of the assays in the Gingras lab was provided through generous donations from the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Questcap and the Krembil Foundation to the Sinai Health System Foundation. The robotics equipment used is housed in the Network Biology Collaborative Centre at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, a facility supported by Canada Foundation for Innovation funding, by the Ontarian Government and by Genome Canada and Ontario Genomics (OGI-139). Indirect support for SARS-CoV-2 work in the Toronto Combined Containment Level 3 laboratory was provided by strategic research funds from the University of Toronto and the Temerity Foundation. MO is funded by: OHTN (Ontario HIV Treatment Network), CIHR and the Juan and Stefania Speck Fund. JG is a Canada Research Chair, Tier 1, in Tissue Specific Immunity and is supported by CIHR FDN15992. ACG is the Canada Research Chair, Tier 1, in Functional Proteomics and is supported by CIHR FDN143301. AJJ is supported by a Vanier Canada graduate studentship.