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

In summary, this study provides proof of concept that good-quality, fully human mAbs with desired specificity and biological activity can be generated with the SEQUENTIAL method. The strengths of this approach are: i) it allows the selection of human monoclonal IgG to a variety of antigens, from a small sample of fresh or frozen peripheral blood, ii) it is rapid, iii) screening can be performed using a variety of assays, including functional assays, iv) the mAbs of interest can be easily produced from the original clone as recombinant proteins suitable for clinical applications, and v) the generation of IgGsecreting polyclonal populations can be considered as a library of antibody-secreting cells that can be used to select mAbs with specificities not considered when cells were immortalized.