Generation of potent neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies against cytomegalovirus infection from immune B cells

Funaro, Ada; Gribaudo, Giorgio; Luganini, Anna; Ortolan, Erika; Lo Buono, Nicola; Vicenzi, Elisa; Cassetta, Luca; Landolfo, Santo; Buick, Richard; Falciola, Luca; Murphy, Marianne; Garotta, Gianni; Malavasi, Fabio

Antibodies constitute the most rapidly growing class of human therapeutics and the second largest class of drugs after vaccines [1] . Most of the growing number of antibodies entering the clinical trials are human [2] and are derived from phage-display technology [3] or from transgenic mice that express human immmunoglobulin genes [4] . However, the best mAbs for clinical applications derive from natural human antibodies generated as a result of the in vivo immune response because they i) are products of the human and not animal repertoire, and ii) are of human origin, thus minimizing the risks of reactivity against self-antigens. Lastly, iii) passive immunotherapy with human IgG can confer immediate protection without the side effects linked to the use of chimeric or humanized mAbs containing animal-derived amino acid sequences. Furthermore, considerable evidence indicates that antibodies represent a new, although historically validated, approach to the development of therapies against bacterial and viral pathogens that causes disease in individuals with impaired immune response and/or for which there are few or no available drugs [5] [6] [7] [8] .