Cross neutralization of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern by antibodies targeting distinct epitopes on spike

Abstract

Several severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants have arisen that exhibit increased viral transmissibility and partial evasion of immunity induced by natural infection and vaccination. To address the specific antibody targets that were affected by recent viral variants, we generated 43 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from 10 convalescent donors that bound three distinct domains of the SARS-CoV-2 spike. Viral variants harboring mutations at K417, E484 and N501 could escape most of the highly potent antibodies against the receptor binding domain (RBD). Despite this, we identified 12 neutralizing mAbs against three distinct regions of the spike protein that neutralize SARS-CoV-2 and the variants of concern, including B.1.1.7 (alpha), P.1 (gamma) and B.1.617.2 (delta). Notably, antibodies targeting distinct epitopes could neutralize discrete variants, suggesting different variants may have evolved to disrupt the binding of particular neutralizing antibody classes. These results underscore that humans exposed to wildtype (WT) SARS-CoV-2 do possess neutralizing antibodies against current variants and that it is critical to induce antibodies targeting multiple distinct epitopes of the spike that can neutralize emerging variants of concern.