Fast Restoration of a Broad-Spectrum SARS-Cov Therapeutic Antibody for SARS-Cov-2

The rapid spread of SARS-Cov-2 remains a major threat for public health and global economy, both preventative and therapeutic solutions are therefore urgently needed. Through the use of epitope-guided antibody design, we successfully restored a broad-spectrum SARS-Cov therapeutic antibody for SARS-Cov-2. Compared to the precursor antibody CR3022, the newly designed antibody NOVOAB-20 binds to SARS-Cov-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) with a more than 10-fold higher affinity. Because this antibody targets a highly conserved epitope and the mutations on SARS-Cov-2 known so far are all not in this region, it also has the potential to block future SARS-Cov-2 mutants. As a fully humanized antibody, NOVOAB-20 is a promising candidate to be developed as potential therapeutics for SARS-Cov-2, either as monotherapy or in combination with other neutralizing antibodies targeting different epitopes (e.g. the ACE2 binding site).