Bispecific antibodies combine breadth, potency, and avidity of parental antibodies to neutralize sarbecoviruses

ABSTRACT

SARS-CoV-2 mutational variants evade humoral immune responses elicited by vaccines and current monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies. Novel antibody-based treatments will thus need to exhibit broad neutralization against different variants. Bispecific antibodies (bsAbs) combine the specificities of two distinct antibodies into one antibody taking advantage of the avidity, synergy and cooperativity provided by targeting two different epitopes. Here we used controlled Fab-arm exchange (cFAE), a versatile and straightforward method, to produce bsAbs that neutralize SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron and its subvariants, by combining potent SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibodies with broader but less potent antibodies that also neutralize SARS-CoV. We demonstrate that the parental IgGs rely on avidity for their neutralizing activity by comparing their potency to bsAbs containing one irrelevant "dead" Fab arm. We used single particle mass photometry to measure formation of antibodyspike complexes, and determined that bsAbs increase binding stoichiometry compared to corresponding cocktails, without a loss of binding affinity. The heterogeneous binding pattern of bsAbs to spike (S), observed by negative-stain electron microscopy and mass photometry provided evidence for both intra- and inter-spike crosslinking. This study highlights the utility of cross-neutralizing antibodies for designing bivalent or multivalent agents to provide a robust activity against circulating variants, as well as future SARS-like coronaviruses.