Longitudinal Isolation of Potent Near-Germline SARS-CoV-2-Neutralizing Antibodies from COVID-19 Patients

Overview

Journal Cell

Publisher Cell Press

Specialty Cell Biology

Date 2020 Jul 17

PMID 32673567

Citations 196

Authors

Christoph Kreer

Matthias Zehner

Timm Weber

Meryem S Ercanoglu

Lutz Gieselmann

Cornelius Rohde

Sandro Halwe

Michael Korenkov

Philipp Schommers

Kanika Vanshylla

Veronica Di Cristanziano

Hanna Janicki

Reinhild Brinker

Artem Ashurov

Verena Krahling

Alexandra Kupke

Hadas Cohen-Dvashi

Manuel Koch

Jan Mathis Eckert

Simone Lederer

Nico Pfeifer

Timo Wolf

Maria J G T Vehreschild

Clemens Wendtner

Ron Diskin

Henning Gruell

Stephan Becker

Florian Klein

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has unprecedented implications for public health, social life, and the world economy. Because approved drugs and vaccines are limited or not available, new options for COVID-19 treatment and prevention are in high demand. To identify SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies, we analyzed the antibody response of 12 COVID-19 patients from 8 to 69 days after diagnosis. By screening 4,313 SARS-CoV-2-reactive B cells, we isolated 255 antibodies from different time points as early as 8 days after diagnosis. Of these, 28 potently neutralized authentic SARS-CoV-2 with IC as low as 0.04 μg/mL, showing a broad spectrum of variable (V) genes and low levels of somatic mutations. Interestingly, potential precursor sequences were identified in naive B cell repertoires from 48 healthy individuals who were sampled before the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies are readily generated from a diverse pool of precursors, fostering hope for rapid induction of a protective immune response upon vaccination.

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