Rapid isolation of potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and protection in a small animal model

Rogers, T. F.; Zhao, F.; Huang, D.; Beutler, N.; Abbott, R. K.; Callaghan, S.; Garcia, E.; He, W.-t.; Hurtado, J.; Limbo, O.; Parren, M.; Peng, L.; Ricketts, J.; Ricciardi, M. K.; Smith, C.; Song, G.; Woehl, J.; Yang, L.; Rawlings, S.; Smith, D. M.; Nemazee, D.; Teijaro, J. R.; Voss, J. E.; Andrabi, R.; Briney, B.; Landais, E.; Sok, D.; Jardine, J. G.; Burton, D.

doi:10.1101/2020.05.11.088674

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.05.11.088674

Rapid isolation of potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and protection in a small animal model

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Abstract

The development of countermeasures to prevent and treat COVID-19 is a global health priority. In under 7 weeks, we enrolled a cohort of SARS-CoV-2-recovered participants, developed neutralization assays to interrogate serum and monoclonal antibody responses, adapted our high throughput antibody isolation, production and characterization pipeline to rapidly screen over 1000 antigen-specific antibodies, and established an animal model to test protection. We report multiple highly potent neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) and show that passive transfer of a nAb provides protection against high-dose SARS-CoV-2 challenge in Syrian hamsters. The study suggests a role for nAbs in prophylaxis, and potentially therapy, of COVID-19. The nAbs define protective epitopes to guide vaccine design.

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Rogers, T. F., Zhao, F., Huang, D., Beutler, N., Abbott, R. K., Callaghan, S., Garcia, E., He, W.-t., Hurtado, J., Limbo, O., Parren, M., Peng, L., Ricketts, J., Ricciardi, M. K., Smith, C., Song, G., Woehl, J., Yang, L., Rawlings, S., Smith, D. M., Nemazee, D., Teijaro, J. R., Voss, J. E., Andrabi, R., Briney, B., Landais, E., Sok, D., Jardine, J. G., Burton, D.. 2020-05-11. Rapid isolation of potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and protection in a small animal model. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.11.088674

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