Isolation of potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and protection from disease in a small animal model

June 15, 2020

Rogers TF, Zhao F, Huang D, et al.

Science

Neutralizing antibodies (nABs) from patient donors who were infected with SARS-CoV-2, were used on two epitopes: the receptor binding domain (RBD) and non-receptor binding domain on the spike protein to test protection using an animal model. The neutralizing antibodies were tested on a Syrian hamster model at five different concentrations to evaluate dose-response. The hamsters were inoculated with SARS-CoV-2. Hamsters were weighed as a measure of disease and lung tissue was collected to measure viral load. Results suggest that the animals who received 2mg (average of 16.5 mg/kg) or 500 μg (average of 4.2 mg/kg) of neutralizing RBD-A antibody, presented with no weight loss and low viral loads whereas the controls lost an average of 13.6% of their body weight, those that received low doses of AB (0.9, 0.2, 0.06 mg/kg also lost significant body weight. The data suggest that an antibody serum concentration required for protection against SARSCoV-2 in this model was found to be 22 μg/ml of nAb which has full protection and a serum concentration of 12 μg/ml of nAb results in a 50% reduced disease that was measured via weight loss. The RBD-A epitope nABs that compete with Angiotensin-Con-verting Enzyme2 are better for prophylactic and therapeutic applications and may help find neutralizing epitopes to guide future vaccine design.

Rogers TF, Zhao F, Huang D, et al. Isolation of potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and protection from disease in a small animal model. Science (80- ) 2020; : eabc7520.

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