Rapid determination of SARS-CoV-2 antibody neutralization titer using Bio-Rad Bio-Plex correlates strongly with pseudovirus-determined neutralization titer

Accurate and rapid evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 half-maximal neutralizing antibody (nAb) titer (NT50) is an important research tool for measuring nAb responses after prophylaxis or therapeutics for COVID-19 prevention and management. Compared with ACE2-competitive enzyme immunoassays for nAb detection, pseudovirus assays remain low-throughput and labor intensive. A novel application of the Bio-Rad Bio-Plex Pro Human SARS-CoV-2 D614G S1 Variant nAb Assay was used to determine NT50 from COVID-19-vaccinated individuals and showed strong correlation to a laboratory-developed SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus nAb assay. The Bio-Plex nAb assay could provide a rapid, high-throughput, culture-free method for NT50 determination in sera. •50 % neutralizing antibody titer (NT50) can be rapidly determined in an ACE2-competitive format.•NT50 determined using Bio-Plex or pseudovirus (PSV) are strongly correlated.•Bio-Plex is approximately 3-fold less sensitive than PSV for neutralizing antibody when concentrations are low.