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Review
. 2020 Nov 25;12(12):980-986.
doi: 10.1093/jmcb/mjaa070.

The development of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and their common features

Liu Daisy Liu  1 , Chaoyang Lian  2 , Leng-Siew Yeap  2 , Fei-Long Meng  1
Affiliations
Review

The development of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and their common features

Liu Daisy Liu et al. J Mol Cell Biol. .

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a worldwide severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic since December 2019. There is a great demand for effective therapies for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Developing therapeutic neutralizing antibodies (NAbs), which could block viral infection, is such a promising approach, as NAbs have been successfully applied to the treatment of other viral infections. The recent advances of antibody technology have greatly accelerated the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 NAbs, and many of which are now actively tested in clinical trials. Here, we review the approaches applied for SARS-CoV-2 NAb development, and discuss the emerging technologies underlining the antibody discovery. We further summarize the common features of these antibodies including the shared neutralizing epitopes and sequence features.

Keywords: COVID-19; RBD; SARS-CoV-2; epitope; neutralizing antibody.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Structures of SARS-CoV-2 S protein trimer complex and representative receptor/antibody recognition interfaces. Left: S protein trimer complex with three RBD ‘down’ conformation; right: S protein trimer complex with a single RBD ‘up’ conformation. One ‘up’ RBD is labelled pink in two states, and the ACE2 receptor and antibody interface are labelled in different colors. The structures are retrieved from PDB: 6VXX and PDB: 6VYB.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Summary of neutralizing epitopes in S-RBD of SARS-CoV-2 NAbs. (A) 3D surface model for S-RBD structure showing the ACE2 interface (left) and schematic of SARS-CoV-2 S1 primary structure (right). (B) 3D surface models for S-RBD with neutralizing epitopes of indicated NAbs as labelled. Residues in the interface or epitopes are marked in different colors. The red residues locate in RBM region, while the blue or orange residues locate in non-RBM region. The SARS-CoV-2 S-RBD structure is from PDB: 6M0J. A predicted epitope based on S-RBD mutagenesis study is also shown.
Figure 3
Figure 3
3D surface model for SARS-CoV-2 S protein trimer complex with an NTD-NAb. The complex structure with 4A8 NAb is from PDB: 7C2L.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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