ABSTRACT
The recurrent outbreak of coronaviruses and variants underscores the need for broadly reactive antivirals and vaccines. Here, a novel broad-spectrum human antibody named 76E1 was isolated from a COVID-19 convalescent patient and showed broad neutralization activity against multiple α- and β-coronaviruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 variants and also exhibited the binding breath to peptides containing the epitope from γ- and δ- coronaviruses. 76E1 cross-protects mice from SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV-OC43 infection in both prophylactic and treatment models. The epitope including the fusion peptide and S2’ cleavage site recognized by 76E1 was significantly conserved among α-, β-, γ- and δ- coronaviruses. We uncovered a novel mechanism of antibody neutralization that the epitope of 76E1 was proportionally less exposed in the prefusion trimeric structure of spike protein but could be unmasked by binding to the receptor ACE2. Once the epitope exposed, 76E1 inhibited S2’ cleavage, thus blocked the membrane fusion process. Our data demonstrate a key epitope targeted by broadly-neutralizing antibodies and will guide next-generation epitope-based pan-coronavirus vaccine design.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , InfectionsABSTRACT
SARS-CoV-2 can remain viable on the protective face masks surface for several days. Mask touching, reuse and disposal occurs frequently, leading to increased risk of cross-contamination, infection and further transmission. Cuprous-oxide has potent virucidal properties. We determined the capacity of surgical face masks (type IIR) made with nonwoven fabric impregnated with cuprous-oxide microparticles (Test Fabric), to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 when in direct contact with the virus. The Test Fabric reduced the infectious titers of SARS-CoV-2 by 0.73, 3.02 and 4.19 log10 within 5, 30 and 60 minutes, respectively. In contrast, the infectious titers of the virus were reduced by Control Fabric by 0.24, 0.67 and 0.97 within 5, 30 and 60 minutes, respectively. The reductions were significantly higher in the Test Fabric than in the Control Fabric (0.49, 2.35 and 3.22 log difference, accordingly), reaching a statistically significant difference after 5 minutes (p < 0.01). The mask filtration properties were not affected by the presence of the cuprous oxide microparticles. We conclude that the use of cuprous-oxide containing face masks in the external layers of respiratory face masks may significantly reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 cross-contamination, transmission and infection, due to masks handling and disposal, especially when used by the general population.
Subject(s)
Masked HypertensionABSTRACT
The receptor-binding domain (RBD) variants of SARS-CoV-2 could impair antibody-mediated neutralization of the virus by host immunity; thus, prospective surveillance for such antibody escape mutants is urgently needed. Here, we comprehensively profiled four antigenic sites of the RBD and mapped the binding hot spots for a panel of RBD-specific monoclonal antibodies isolated from COVID-19 convalescents, especially dominant VH3-53/3–66 antibodies, which are valuable indicators of antigenic changes in the RBD. We further demonstrated that several natural mutations, namely, K417N, F486L, N450K, L452R, E484K, F490S and R346S, significantly decreased the neutralizing activity of multiple human monoclonal antibodies and of human convalescent plasma obtained in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of note, among the natural escape mutations, L452R enhanced ACE2 binding affinity, indicating that it potentially increased virulence. Overall, the in-depth maps may have far-reaching value for surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 immune escape variants and guidance of vaccine design.
Subject(s)
COVID-19ABSTRACT
Accumulating mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein can increase the possibility of immune escape, challenging the present COVID-19 prophylaxis and clinical interventions. Here, 3 receptor binding domain (RBD) specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), 58G6, 510A5 and 13G9, with high neutralizing potency blocking authentic SARS-CoV-2 virus displayed remarkable efficacy against authentic B.1.351 virus. Each of these 3 mAbs in combination with one neutralizing Ab recognizing non-competing epitope exhibited synergistic effect against authentic SARS-CoV-2 virus. Surprisingly, structural analysis revealed that 58G6 and 13G9, encoded by the IGHV1-58 and the IGKV3-20 germline genes, both recognized the steric region S470-495 on the RBD, overlapping the E484K mutation presented in B.1.351. Also, 58G6 directly bound to another region S450-458 in the RBD. Significantly, 58G6 and 510A5 both demonstrated prophylactic efficacy against authentic SARS-CoV-2 and B.1.351 viruses in the transgenic mice expressing human ACE2 (hACE2), protecting weight loss and reducing virus loads. These 2 ultrapotent neutralizing Abs can be promising candidates to fulfill the urgent needs for the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.
Subject(s)
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome , COVID-19 , Weight LossABSTRACT
Accumulating mutations on SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein may increase the possibility of immune escape, challenging the present COVID-19 prophylaxis and clinical interventions. Here, in a panel of receptor binding domain (S-RBD) specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with high neutralizing potency against authentic SARS-CoV-2, at least 6 of them were found to efficiently block the pseudovirus of 501Y.V2, a highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variant with escape mutations. The top 3 neutralizing Abs (13G9, 58G6 and 510A5) exhibited comparative ultrapotency as those being actively pursued for clinical development. Interestingly, the antigenic sites for the majority of our neutralizing Abs overlapped with a single epitope (13G9e) on S-RBD. Further, the 3-dimensional structures of 2 ultrapotent neutralizing Abs 13G9 or 58G6 in complex with SARS-CoV-2 S trimer demonstrated that both Abs bound to a steric region within S472–490. Moreover, a specific linear region (S450–457) was identified as an additional target for 58G6. Importantly, our cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) analysis revealed a unique phenomenon that the S-RBDs interacting with the fragments of antigen binding (Fabs) of 13G9 or 58G6 encoded by the IGHV1-58 and the IGKV3-20 gene segments were universally in the ‘up’ conformation in all observed particles. The potent neutralizing Abs presented in the current study may be promising candidates to fulfill the urgent needs for the current pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, and may of fundamental value for the next-generation vaccine development.
Subject(s)
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome , COVID-19ABSTRACT
After the epidemic of COVID-19, neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against SARS-CoV-2 has been developed for the preventative and therapeutic purposes. However, few methodologies are reported in detail on how to rapidly and efficiently generate NAbs of interest. Here, we present a strategically optimized screening method for NAbs, which has enabled us to obtain SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) specific monoclonal Abs within 4 days, followed by additional 2 days to evaluate their neutralizing activities. Using this method, we obtained 198 specific Abs against SARS-CoV-2 RBD from the blood samples of COVID-19 convalescent patients, and 96 of them showed neutralizing activity. At least 20% of these NAbs exhibited high neutralizing potency. The top 2 NAbs showed the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) to block authentic SARS-CoV-2 at 9.88 and 11.13 ng/ml, respectively. Altogether, our study provides a fundamental methodology for discovering NAbs with potential preventative and therapeutic value for emerging infectious diseases.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Communicable Diseases, EmergingABSTRACT
The spread of SARS-CoV-2 confers a serious threat to the public health without effective intervention strategies1-3. Its variant carrying mutated Spike (S) protein D614G (SD614G) has become the most prevalent form in the current global pandemic4,5. We have identified a large panel of potential neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) targeting the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 S6. Here, we focused on the top 20 potential NAbs for the mechanism study. Of them, the top 4 NAbs could individually neutralize both authentic SARS-CoV-2 and SD614G pseudovirus efficiently. Our epitope mapping revealed that 16/20 potent NAbs overlapped the same steric epitope. Excitingly, we found that one of these potent NAbs (58G6) exclusively bound to a linear epitope on S-RBD (termed as 58G6e), and the interaction of 58G6e and the recombinant ACE2 could be blocked by 58G6. We confirmed that 58G6e represented a key site of vulnerability on S-RBD and it could positively react with COVID-19 convalescent patients plasma. We are the first, as far as we know, to provide direct evidences of a linear epitope that can be recognized by a potent NAb against SARS-CoV-2 S-RBD. This study paves the way for the applications of these NAbs and the potential safe and effective vaccine design.
Subject(s)
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome , COVID-19ABSTRACT
IntroductionWe present the sequence analysis for 47 complete genomes for SARS-CoV-2 isolates on Turkish patients. To identify their genetic similarity, phylogenetic analysis was performed by comparing the worldwide SARS-CoV-2 sequences, selected from GISAID, to the complete genomes from Turkish isolates. In addition, we focused on the variation analysis to show the mutations on SARS-CoV-2 genomes. MethodsIllumina MiSeq platform was used for sequencing the libraries. The raw reads were aligned to the known SARS-CoV-2 genome (GenBank: MN908947.3) using the Burrows-Wheeler aligner (v.0.7.1). The phylogenetic tree was constructer using Phylip v.3.6 with Neighbor-Joining and composite likelihood method. The variants were detected by using Genome Analysis Toolkit-HaplotypeCaller v.3.8.0 and were inspected on GenomeBrowse v2.1.2. ResultsAll viral genome sequences of our isolates was located in lineage B under the different clusters such as B.1 (n=3), B.1.1 (n=28), and B.1.9 (n=16). According to the GISAID nomenclature, all our complete genomes were placed in G, GR and GH clades. Five hundred forty-nine total and 53 unique variants were detected. All 47 genomes exhibited different kinds of variants. The distinct variants consist of 274 missense, 225 synonymous, and 50 non-coding alleles. ConclusionThe results indicated that the SARS-CoV-2 sequences of our isolates have great similarity with all Turkish and European sequences. Further studies should be performed for better comparison of strains, after more complete genome sequences will be released. We also believe that collecting and sharing any data about SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 will be effective and may help the related studies.
Subject(s)
COVID-19ABSTRACT
Neutralizing antibodies (Abs) have been considered as promising therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of pathogens. After the outbreak of COVID-19, potent neutralizing Abs to SARS-CoV-2 were promptly developed, and a few of those neutralizing Abs are being tested in clinical studies. However, there were few methodologies detailly reported on how to rapidly and efficiently generate neutralizing Abs of interest. Here, we present a strategically optimized method for precisive screening of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), which enabled us to identify SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) specific Abs within 4 days, followed by another 2 days for neutralization activity evaluation. By applying the screening system, we obtained 198 Abs against the RBD of SARS-CoV-2. Excitingly, we found that approximately 50% (96/198) of them were candidate neutralizing Abs in a preliminary screening of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus and 20 of these 96 neutralizing Abs were confirmed with high potency. Furthermore, 2 mAbs with the highest neutralizing potency were identified to block authentic SARS-CoV-2 with the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) at concentrations of 9.88 ng/ml and 11.13 ng/ml. In this report, we demonstrated that the optimized neutralizing Abs screening system is useful for the rapid and efficient discovery of potent neutralizing Abs against SARS-CoV-2. Our study provides a methodology for the generation of preventive and therapeutic antibody drugs for emerging infectious diseases.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Communicable Diseases, EmergingABSTRACT
The pandemic of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 has posed serious threats to global health and economy, thus calling for the development of safe and effective vaccines. The receptor-binding domain (RBD) in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for its binding to ACE2 receptor. It contains multiple dominant neutralizing epitopes and serves as an important antigen for the development of COVID-19 vaccines. Here, we showed that immunization of mice with a candidate subunit vaccine consisting of SARS-CoV-2 RBD and Fc fragment of human IgG, as an immunopotentiator, elicited high titer of RBD-specific antibodies with robust neutralizing activity against both pseudotyped and live SARS-CoV-2 infections. The mouse antisera could also effectively neutralize infection by pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 with several natural mutations in RBD and the IgG extracted from the mouse antisera could also show neutralization against pseudotyped SARS-CoV and SARS-related coronavirus (SARSr-CoV). Vaccination of human ACE2 transgenic mice with RBD-Fc could effectively protect mice from the SARS-CoV-2 challenge. These results suggest that SARS-CoV-2 RBD-Fc has good potential to be further developed as an effective and broad-spectrum vaccine to prevent infection of the current SARS-CoV-2 and its mutants, as well as future emerging SARSr-CoVs and re-emerging SARS-CoV.
Subject(s)
Coronavirus Infections , Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome , COVID-19ABSTRACT
Recently emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the pathogen responsible for the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Currently, there is no vaccine available for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection. Like closely related severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), SARS-CoV-2 also uses its receptor-binding domain (RBD) on the spike (S) protein to engage the host receptor, human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), facilitating subsequent viral entry. Here we report the immunogenicity and vaccine potential of SARS-CoV-2 RBD (SARS2-RBD)-based recombinant proteins. Immunization with SARS2-RBD recombinant proteins potently induced a multi-functional antibody response in mice. The resulting antisera could efficiently block the interaction between SARS2-RBD and ACE2, inhibit S-mediated cell-cell fusion, and neutralize both SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus entry and authentic SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, the anti-RBD sera also exhibited cross binding, ACE2-blockade, and neutralization effects towards SARS-CoV. More importantly, we found that the anti-RBD sera did not promote antibody-dependent enhancement of either SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus entry or authentic virus infection of Fc receptor-bearing cells. These findings provide a solid foundation for developing RBD-based subunit vaccines for SARS-CoV2.
Subject(s)
COVID-19ABSTRACT
The SARS-CoV-2 infection is spreading rapidly worldwide. Efficacious antiviral therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 is urgently needed. Here, we discovered that protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) and verteporfin, two FDA-approved drugs, completely inhibited the cytopathic effect produced by SARS-CoV-2 infection at 1.25 M and 0.31 M respectively, and their EC50 values of reduction of viral RNA were at nanomolar concentrations. The selectivity indices of PpIX and verteporfin were 952.74 and 368.93, respectively, suggesting broad margin of safety. Importantly, PpIX and verteporfin prevented SARS-CoV-2 infection in mice adenovirally transduced with human ACE2. The compounds, sharing a porphyrin ring structure, were shown to bind viral receptor ACE2 and interfere with the interaction between ACE2 and the receptor-binding domain of viral S protein. Our study suggests that PpIX and verteporfin are potent antiviral agents against SARS-CoV-2 infection and sheds new light on developing novel chemoprophylaxis and chemotherapy against SARS-CoV-2.
Subject(s)
COVID-19ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading rapidly, highlighting the urgent need for an efficient approach to rapidly develop therapeutics and prophylactics against SARS-CoV-2. We describe here the development of a phage-displayed single-domain antibody library by grafting naive CDRs into framework regions of an identified human germline IGHV allele. This enabled the isolation of high-affinity single-domain antibodies of fully human origin. The panning using SARS-CoV-2 RBD and S1 as antigens resulted in the identification of antibodies targeting five types of neutralizing or non-neutralizing epitopes on SARS-CoV-2 RBD. These fully human single-domain antibodies bound specifically to SARS-CoV-2 RBD with subnanomolar to low nanomolar affinities. Some of them were found to potently neutralize pseudotyped and live virus, and therefore may represent promising candidates for prophylaxis and therapy of COVID-19. This study also reports unique immunogenic profile of SARS-CoV-2 RBD compared to that of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, which may have important implications for the development of effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.