Convergent Antibody Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Convalescent Individuals
By
Davide F Robbiani,
Christian Gaebler,
Frauke Muecksch,
Julio C.C. Lorenzi,
Zijun Wang,
Alice Cho,
Marianna Agudelo,
Christopher O Barnes,
Anna Gazumyan,
Shlomo Finkin,
Thomas Hagglof,
Thiago Y. Oliveira,
Charlotte Viant,
Arlene Hurley,
Hans-Heinrich Hoffmann,
Katrina G Millard,
Rhonda G. Kost,
Melissa Cipolla,
Kristie Gordon,
Filippo Bianchini,
Spencer T. Chen,
Victor Ramos,
Roshni Patel,
Juan Dizon,
Irina Shimeliovich,
Pilar Mendoza,
Harald Hartweger,
Lilian Nogueira,
Maggi Pack,
Jill Horowitz,
Fabian Schmidt,
Yiska Weisblum,
Eleftherios Michailidis,
Alison W. Ashbrook,
Eric Waltari,
John E Pak,
Kathryn E. Huey-Tubman,
Nicholas Koranda,
Pauline R. Hoffman,
Anthony P. West,
C.M. Rice,
Theodora Hatziioannou,
Pamela Bjorkman,
Paul D. Bieniasz,
Marina Caskey,
Michel C. Nussenzweig
Posted 15 May 2020
bioRxiv DOI: 10.1101/2020.05.13.092619
(published DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2456-9)
During the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 infected millions of people and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Virus entry into cells depends on the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S). Although there is no vaccine, it is likely that antibodies will be essential for protection. However, little is known about the human antibody response to SARS-CoV-2. Here we report on 149 COVID-19 convalescent individuals. Plasmas collected an average of 39 days after the onset of symptoms had variable half-maximal neutralizing titers ranging from undetectable in 33% to below 1:1000 in 79%, while only 1% showed titers >1:5000. Antibody cloning revealed expanded clones of RBD-specific memory B cells expressing closely related antibodies in different individuals. Despite low plasma titers, antibodies to three distinct epitopes on RBD neutralized at half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50s) as low as single digit ng/mL. Thus, most convalescent plasmas obtained from individuals who recover from COVID-19 do not contain high levels of neutralizing activity. Nevertheless, rare but recurring RBD-specific antibodies with potent antiviral activity were found in all individuals tested, suggesting that a vaccine designed to elicit such antibodies could be broadly effective. ### Competing Interest Statement In connection with this work The Rockefeller University has filed a provisional patent application on which D.F.R. and M.C.N are inventors.
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