The “broad-spectrum” neutralizing antibody that resists the continuous evolution of the new coronavirus reveals the future direction of vaccine development

Neutralizing antibodies against the new coronavirus is one of the important means to treat and prevent COVID-19.

Today, "Nature" magazine published scientific papers jointly published by Vir Biotechnology and a number of cooperative research institutions in the form of Accelerated Article Preview

The new coronavirus, SARS virus and MERS virus, the coronaviruses that cause disease in humans, belong to the Sarbe coronavirus subgenus

They discovered a "broad-spectrum" neutralizing antibody called S2H97, which binds to a previously undiscovered hidden epitope on the RBD of the spike protein, although it does not directly block the RBD and human spike protein The binding of the receptor ACE2, but leads to a conformational change of RBD, thereby preventing the binding of the spike protein to ACE2

This antibody maintains neutralizing activity against various strains of the Sarbe coronavirus subgenus

Finally, the researchers tested whether the sera of patients infected with the new coronavirus or those who were vaccinated against the new coronavirus contained the same antibody as the S2H97 binding site

The researchers pointed out in the paper that the study of neutralizing antibodies and the epitopes they bind will help guide the next step in the development of antibodies and vaccines

Therefore, testing based on the "breadth" of antibody neutralization capabilities may find more conservative epitopes, and support the development of antibodies or vaccines that are more resistant to immune escape, and respond to new coronaviruses that may emerge in the future

Reference materials:

[1] Starr et al.