A potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing human monoclonal antibody that reduces viral burden and disease severity in Syrian hamsters

Fagre, Anna C.; Manhard, John; Adams, Rachel; Eckley, Miles; Zhan, Shijun; Lewis, Juliette; Rocha, Savannah M.; Woods, Catherine; Kuo, Karina; Liao, Wuxiang; Li, Lin; Corper, Adam; Challa, Dilip; Mount, Emily; Tumanut, Christine; Tjalkens, Ronald B.; Aboelleil, Tawfik; Fan, Xiaomin; Schountz, Tony

The emergence of COVID-19 has led to a pandemic that has caused millions of cases of disease, variable morbidity and hundreds of thousands of deaths. Currently, only remdesivir and dexamethasone have demonstrated limited efficacy, only slightly reducing disease burden, thus novel approaches for clinical management of COVID-19 are needed. We identified a panel of human monoclonal antibody clones from a yeast display library with specificity to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain that neutralized the virus in vitro. Administration of the lead antibody clone to Syrian hamsters challenged with SARS-CoV-2 significantly reduced viral load and histopathology score in the lungs. Moreover, the antibody interrupted monocyte infiltration into the lungs, which may have contributed to the reduction of disease severity by limiting immunopathological exacerbation. The use of this antibody could provide an important therapy for treatment of COVID-19 patients.