Monoclonal antibody isolation and characterization for COVID-19 Effort

National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases

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Abstract

To date, we have isolated more than 100 SARS-CoV-2-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from SARS-CoV-2 convalescent donors and characterized their functionality in vitro. More than 25 of these mAbs isolated and characterized were neutralizing against SARS-CoV-2 with several also able to neutralize multiple Variants of Concern (VOC). Five of these antibodies are of particular interest owing to their ability to potently neutralize SARS-CoV-2, multiple VOCs and, in some instances, SARS1. We are also isolating and characterizing mAbs with pan-coronavirus neutralizing activity, including neutralization of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). We have generated a stable cell line co-expressing hACE2 and TMPRSS2a for use as target cells in the SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus neutralization assay, and optimized and validated this cell one for reproducible evaluation of neutralizing activity by mAb and human donor serum samples in vitro.