LaJolla Institute A ‘cocktail’ of human antibodies shows promise in fighting severe SARS-CoV-2 infections.
An anonymous San Diego resident has become a fascinating example of how the human immune system fights SARS-CoV-2. In a new investigation, scientists from La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have shown how antibodies, collected from this clinical study volunteer, bind to the SARS-CoV-2 “Spike” protein to neutralize the virus.
Although studies have shown antibodies bound to Spike before, this new research reveals how the original Moderna SARS-CoV-2 vaccine could prompt the body to produce antibodies against the later Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2. The researchers also capture highly detailed, 3D structures of three promising neutralizing antibodies bound to Spike.
This important work shows exactly where Spike is vulnerable to human antibodies—and how future vaccines and antibody therapeutics might exploit these weaknesses. In fact, studies in mice suggest some of these antibodies may help prevent severe cases of COVID-19.
“To blunt the next pandemic and protect people from seasonal re-emergence of this one, we need antibodies of the broadest possible capacity—ones that are not escaped,” says LJI President and CEO Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., senior author of the new Cell Reports study. “We found those in a vaccinated San Diegan.”
“Studying that person’s immune response in detail uncovered antibodies that are still effective against many Omicron variants,” adds LJI Instructor Kathryn Hastie, Ph.D., co-leader of the study and Director of the LJI Antibody Discovery Center. “We now have to figure out how to boost these antibodies that we want over others that are less effective.”