mAbs (Jan 2021)

A human antibody of potent efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 in rhesus macaques showed strong blocking activity to B.1.351

  • Chunyin Gu,
  • Xiaodan Cao,
  • Zongda Wang,
  • Xue Hu,
  • Yanfeng Yao,
  • Yiwu Zhou,
  • Peipei Liu,
  • Xiaowu Liu,
  • Ge Gao,
  • Xiao Hu,
  • Yecheng Zhang,
  • Zhen Chen,
  • Li Gao,
  • Yun Peng,
  • Fangfang Jia,
  • Chao Shan,
  • Li Yu,
  • Kunpeng Liu,
  • Nan Li,
  • Weiwei Guo,
  • Guoping Jiang,
  • Juan Min,
  • Jianjian Zhang,
  • Lu Yang,
  • Meng Shi,
  • Tianquan Hou,
  • Yanan Li,
  • Weichen Liang,
  • Guoqiao Lu,
  • Congyi Yang,
  • Yuting Wang,
  • Kaiwen Xia,
  • Zheng Xiao,
  • Jianhua Xue,
  • Xueyi Huang,
  • Xin Chen,
  • Haixia Ma,
  • Donglin Song,
  • Zhongzong Pan,
  • Xueping Wang,
  • Haibing Guo,
  • Hong Liang,
  • Zhiming Yuan,
  • Wuxiang Guan,
  • Su-Jun Deng

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/19420862.2021.1930636
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1

Abstract

Read online

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), interacts with the host cell receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) via its spike 1 protein during infection. After the virus sequence was published, we identified two potent antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) from antibody libraries using a phage-to-yeast (PtY) display platform in only 10 days. Our lead antibody JMB2002, now in a Phase 1 clinical trial (ChiCTR2100042150), showed broad-spectrum in vitro blocking activity against hACE2 binding to the RBD of multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants, including B.1.351 that was reportedly much more resistant to neutralization by convalescent plasma, vaccine sera and some clinical-stage neutralizing antibodies. Furthermore, JMB2002 has demonstrated complete prophylactic and potent therapeutic efficacy in a rhesus macaque disease model. Prophylactic and therapeutic countermeasure intervention of SARS-CoV-2 using JMB2002 would likely slow down the transmission of currently emerged SARS-CoV-2 variants and result in more efficient control of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords