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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2023.03.12.532265

Monoclonal antibodies against human coronavirus NL63 spike

Conlan, M.·Tan, H.-X.·Esterbauer, R.·Kelly, A.·Kent, S. J.·Wheatley, A. K.·Lee, W. S.
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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the potential for monoclonal antibody therapeutics as prophylactic and therapeutic agents against pandemic viruses. No such therapeutics currently exist for other human coronaviruses. NL63 is a human alphacoronavirus that typically causes the common cold and uses the same receptor, ACE2, as the highly pathogenic SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 pandemic viruses. In a cohort of healthy adults, we characterised humoral responses against the NL63 spike protein. While NL63 spike and receptor binding domain-specific binding antibodies and neutralisation activity could be detected in plasma of all subjects, memory B cells against NL63 spike were variable and relatively low in frequency compared to that against SARS-CoV-2 spike. From these donors, we isolated a panel of antibodies against NL63 spike and characterised their neutralising potential. We identified potent neutralising antibodies that recognised the receptor binding domain (RBD) and other non-RBD epitopes within spike.

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Conlan, M., Tan, H.-X., Esterbauer, R., Kelly, A., Kent, S. J., Wheatley, A. K., Lee, W. S.. 2023-03-13. Monoclonal antibodies against human coronavirus NL63 spike. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.12.532265

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