Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Oct 17;232(Supplement_3):S347-S358.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiaf216.

Polyclonal and Monoclonal Antibodies for the Treatment and Prevention of Influenza

John H Beigel  1 , David Oldach  2
Affiliations
Review

Polyclonal and Monoclonal Antibodies for the Treatment and Prevention of Influenza

John H Beigel et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

While at least 8 monoclonal and 3 polyclonal antibody products have been tested in clinical trials for the treatment of influenza, no products have been licensed, and most have stopped clinical development. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that these approaches, especially monoclonal antibodies, may have unique potential in certain stages of disease and populations, especially in preventing severe disease in a population without preexisting immunity or in those with a limited capacity to mount an effective humoral immune response. This review summarizes past and ongoing efforts in using monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies for the treatment and prevention of influenza, focusing on products that have entered clinical trials and drawing lessons from COVID-19 to direct future efforts on these strategies.

Keywords: CR6261; CR8020; CT-P27; FGI-101-1A6; MEDI8852; MHAA4549A; TCN-032; VIR-2482; VIS410; high titer immune globulin; high titer immune plasma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest. J. H. B. was an investigator for several of the polyclonal antibody products discussed but has no financial interest related to these products. D. O. is an employee of Visterra, Inc. Both authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Two-dimensional representation of an influenza A hemagglutinin prior to HA1/HA2 cleavage and fusion intermediate transformation. The HA homotrimer is comprised of three monomers. The globular head (top of image) comprised of three identical sequences derived from HA1, contains the sialic-acid binding residues. The coiled coil structure of α-helices derived from the three HA2 components of the trimer provide HA stem structure. Two of the three largely hidden fusion peptides of the HA2 N-termini are visible in this view, in the lower pole of the superimposed oval.Highly conserved sites identified in a bioinformatic analysis of over 26,500 HA sequences (GenBank and EpiFlu) were analyzed to determine site entropy and amino acid networking for H1N1 viruses. The most highly networked sites (in general, both conserved and constrained within and across HA subtypes) were identified in the HA stem region roughly identified by the superimposed oval. HA stem binding broadly neutralizing MAbs generally bind epitopes in this region. Analysis and figures from internal data, Visterra, Inc.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Behring E, Kitasato S. Über das zustandekommen der diphtherie-immunität und der tetanus-immunität bei thieren. Dtsch Med Wochenschrift 1890; 49:1113–4. - PubMed
    1. Kaufmann SH. Remembering Emil von Behring: from tetanus treatment to antibody cooperation with phagocytes. MBio 2017; 8:e00117-17. - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for infectious diseases. 2024. Available at: https://www.who.int/teams/immunization-vaccines-and-biologicals/product-....
    1. Leavy O. Therapeutic antibodies: past, present and future. Nat Rev Immunol 2010; 10:297. - PubMed
    1. Wu H, Pfarr DS, Losonsky GA, Kiener PA. Immunoprophylaxis of RSV infection: advancing from RSV-IGIV to palivizumab and motavizumab. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 2008; 317:103–23. - PubMed