Abstract
Human monoclonal antibodies are safe, preventive and therapeutic tools, that can be rapidly developed to help restore the massive health and economic disruption caused by the Covid−19 pandemic. By single cell sorting 4277 SARS−CoV−2 spike protein specific memory B cells from 14 Covid−19 survivors, 453 neutralizing antibodies were identified and 220 of them were expressed as IgG. Up to 65,9% of monoclonals neutralized the wild type virus at a concentration of >500 ng/mL, 23,6% neutralized the virus in the range of 100 − 500 ng/mL and 9,1% had a neutralization potency in the range of 10 − 100 ng/mL. Only 1,4% neutralized the authentic virus with a potency of 1−10 ng/mL. We found that the most potent neutralizing antibodies are extremely rare and recognize the RBD, followed in potency by antibodies that recognize the S1 domain, the S-protein trimeric structure and the S2 subunit. The three most potent monoclonal antibodies identified were able to neutralize the wild type and D614G mutant viruses with less than 10 ng/mL and are good candidates for the development of prophylactic and therapeutic tools against SARS−CoV−2.
Competing Interest Statement
Rino Rappuoli is an employee of GSK group of companies. Emanuele Andreano, Anna Kabanova, Dario Cardamone, Concetta De Santi, Ida Paciello, Noemi Manganaro, Elisa Pantano, Piero Pileri, Claudia Sala, Marco Troisi, Fabiola Vacca and Rino Rappuoli are listed as inventors of full-length human monoclonal antibodies described in Italian patent applications n. 102020000015754 filed on June 30th 2020 and 102020000018955 filed on August 3rd 2020.
