Tackling COVID-19 with neutralizing monoclonal antibodies

Corti, Davide; Purcell, Lisa A.; Snell, Gyorgy; Veesler, David

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have revolutionized the treatment of several human diseases, including cancer, autoimmunity and inflammatory conditions and represent a new frontier for the treatment of infectious diseases. In the last twenty years, innovative methods have allowed the rapid isolation of mAbs from convalescent subjects, humanized mice or libraries assembled in vitro and have proven that mAbs can be effective countermeasures against emerging pathogens. During the past year, an unprecedentedly large number of mAbs have been developed to fight COVID-19. Lessons learned from this pandemic will pave the way for the development of more mAb-based therapeutics for other infectious diseases. Here, we provide an overview of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing mAbs, including their origin, specificity, structure, antiviral and immunological mechanisms of action, resistance to circulating variants as well as a snapshot of the clinical trials of approved or late-stage mAb therapeutics.