Cited by 1,349SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Researchvaccines and immunoinformatics approachesMonoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies Research

Potent neutralizing antibodies against multiple epitopes on SARS-CoV-2 spike

Open access
Liu, Lihong, Wang, Pengfei, Nair, Manoj S., Yu, Jian, Rapp, Micah, Wang, Qian, Luo, Yang, Chan, Jasper F.-W. +16 more·2020·Nature

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Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic continues, with devasting consequences for human lives and the global economy 1,2. The discovery and development of virus-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies could be one approach to treat or prevent infection by this coronavirus. Here we report the isolation of sixty-one SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies from five patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and admitted to hospital with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Among these are nineteen antibodies that potently neutralized authentic SARS-CoV-2 in vitro, nine of which exhibited very high potency, with 50% virus-inhibitory concentrations of 0.7 to 9 ng ml-1. Epitope mapping showed that this collection of nineteen antibodies was about equally divided between those directed against the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and those directed against the N-terminal domain (NTD), indicating that both of these regions at the top of the viral spike are immunogenic. In addition, two other powerful neutralizing antibodies recognized quaternary epitopes that overlap with the domains at the top of the spike. Cryo-electron microscopy reconstructions of one antibody that targets the RBD, a second that targets the NTD, and a third that bridges two separate RBDs showed that the antibodies recognize the closed, 'all RBD-down' conformation of the spike. Several of these monoclonal antibodies are promising candidates for clinical development as potential therapeutic and/or prophylactic agents against SARS-CoV-2.

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  • Extraction of neutralizing antibodies from COVID-19 patient serum verified the S protein's high immunogenicity, and the receptor binding domain (RBD) and N-terminal domains were also equally immunogenic.

    “The extraction of neutralizing antibodies from COVID-19 patient’s serum verified the S protein’s high immunogenicity, whereas the receptor binding domain (RBD) and N-terminal domains were also equally immunogenic (NTD).”

    From Modifications of mRNA vaccine structural elements for improving mRNA stability and translation efficiency (2022) · cites this paper as Liu et al. 2020

    The opening summary (p. 1) reports neutralizing antibodies from five COVID-19 patients and says the potent antibodies were about equally divided between RBD and NTD targets, indicating that both spike regions are immunogenic. But “Isolation and construction of mAbs” (p. 2) describes sorting spike-binding memory B cells from blood and producing monoclonal antibodies from their sequences, not extracting antibodies from patient serum. (LLM, conf=0.90)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Most of the strongest neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 identified so far bind the RBD.

    “We focused on the RBD since it is the target of the majority of the more potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies discovered to date21–26.”
  • Antibodies in classes 1 and 2 are both highly potent and highly abundant.

    “Class 1 and 2 antibodies are among the most potent and also the most abundant antibodies7,8,21,22,25,39.”
  • mRNA vaccines induce antibodies to RBD, the main target of neutralizing antibodies, in a way that resembles natural infection.

    “The vaccines elicit antibody responses against the RBD, the major target of neutralizing antibodies21–26, in a manner that resembles natural infection.”
  • Pseudovirus neutralization does not always faithfully reproduce live-virus neutralization.

    “These discrepant results highlight a previous observation 20 that pseudovirus neutralization does not always faithfully”

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Authors
Liu, L., Wang, P., Nair, M. S., Yu, J., Rapp, M., Wang, Q., Luo, Y., Chan, J. F.-W., Sahi, V., Figueroa, A., Guo, X. V., Cerutti, G., Bimela, J., Gorman, J., Zhou, T., Chen, Z., Yuen, K.-Y., Kwong, P. D., Sodroski, J. G., Yin, M. T., Sheng, Z., Huang, Y., Shapiro, L., & Ho, D. D.
Affiliations
  • Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (US)
  • Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute (US)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • University of Hong Kong (HK)
  • Columbia University (US)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
Corresponding author
  • Huang, Yaoxing
  • Shapiro, Lawrence
  • Ho, David D.
Venue
Nature
Published
2020-07-22
Volume
584
Issue
7821
Pages
450-456
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W3044660350
Cited by
1,349
References
56
Citations by year
2026: 34 · 2025: 55 · 2024: 111 · 2023: 161 · 2022: 310 · 2021: 548 · 2020: 129
FWCI
37.67
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Simons Foundation (SF 349247)
  • JPB Foundation
  • Tencent
  • Innovation and Technology Commission
  • National Institutes of Health (GM 103310)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (P41GM103310, GM103310, U24GM129539)
  • Common Fund (U24 GM129539)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › vaccines and immunoinformatics approaches
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Monoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies Research
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 pandemic, neutralizing monoclonal antibodies, spike protein, receptor binding domain, N-terminal domain, epitope mapping, quaternary epitope, therapeutic antibodies
MeSH terms
Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Animals, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Antibodies, Viral, Disease Models, Animal, Female, Humans, Immunoglobulin Fab Fragments, Lung, Male, Mesocricetus, Models, Molecular, Neutralization Tests, Pneumonia, Viral, Coronavirus Infections, Epitope Mapping, Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte, Cryoelectron Microscopy, Antibodies, Neutralizing, Pandemics, Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus

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