Abstract
The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), has caused a global pandemic. Antibodies are powerful biotherapeutics to fight viral infections; however, discovery of the most potent and broadly acting clones can be lengthy. Here, we used the human apoferritin protomer as a modular subunit to drive oligomerization of antibody fragments and transform antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 into exceptionally potent neutralizers. Using this platform, half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values as low as 9 × 10−14 M were achieved as a result of up to 10,000-fold potency enhancements. Combination of three different antibody specificities and the fragment crystallizable (Fc) domain on a single multivalent molecule conferred the ability to overcome viral sequence variability together with outstanding potency and Ig-like in vivo bioavailability. This MULTi-specific, multi-Affinity antiBODY (Multabody; or MB) platform contributes a new class of medical countermeasures against COVID-19 and an efficient approach to rapidly deploy potent and broadly-acting therapeutics against infectious diseases of global health importance.
One Sentence Summary multimerization platform transforms antibodies emerging from discovery screens into potent neutralizers that can overcome SARS-CoV-2 sequence diversity.
Competing Interest Statement
The Hospital for Sick Children has applied for patents concerning SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and the Multabody platform technology that are related to this work. BT and JPJ are founders of Radiant Biotherapeutics and are members of its Scientific Advisory Board. SY, SLC and JG are employees of DistributedBio and may hold shares in DistributedBio. All other authors declare no competing interests.
