Vacuum tubes with anti-coagulation compound (EDTA) were used to collect fasting venous blood. Blood tubes were centrifuged at 3000× g for 15 min in a 5810 centrifuge (Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany). Plasma separated from the red cell mass was divided into aliquots and stored at −70 °C.
For this study, plasma samples of 100 volunteers were selected from a collection of samples obtained from patients of different ages with a different course of COVID-19 disease: 50 patients who recovered from COVID-19 (NTD, MTD); 25 patients vaccinated with two doses of Sputnik V (HTV) with high antibody titer; 25 donors who had no COVID-19 and no vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 (NTD). COVID-19 in all donors was confirmed by PCR and ELISA against S- and N-protein of SARS-CoV-2. The presence of antibodies against S-protein and absence of antibodies against N-protein in HTV patients was also analyzed by ELISA.
The samples were collected in Novosibirsk between October 2020 and May 2021. Consequently, these samples display the B-lymphocyte antigenic response to the Wuhan strain.