• Christoph Kreer, Matthias Zehner, Timm Weber, Meryem S Ercanoglu, Lutz Gieselmann, Cornelius Rohde, Sandro Halwe, Michael Korenkov, Philipp Schommers, Kanika Vanshylla, Veronica Di Cristanziano, Hanna Janicki, Reinhild Brinker, Artem Ashurov, Verena Krähling, Alexandra Kupke, Hadas Cohen-Dvashi, Manuel Koch, Jan Mathis Eckert, Simone Lederer, Nico Pfeifer, Timo Wolf, Vehreschild Maria J G T MJGT Department of Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Ge, Clemens Wendtner, Ron Diskin, Henning Gruell, Stephan Becker, and Florian Klein.
• Laboratory of Experimental Immunology, Institute of Virology, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany.
• Cell. 2020 Aug 20; 182 (4): 843-854.e12.

AbstractThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has unprecedented implications for public health, social life, and the world economy. Because approved drugs and vaccines are limited or not available, new options for COVID-19 treatment and prevention are in high demand. To identify SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies, we analyzed the antibody response of 12 COVID-19 patients from 8 to 69 days after diagnosis. By screening 4,313 SARS-CoV-2-reactive B cells, we isolated 255 antibodies from different time points as early as 8 days after diagnosis. Of these, 28 potently neutralized authentic SARS-CoV-2 with IC100 as low as 0.04 μg/mL, showing a broad spectrum of variable (V) genes and low levels of somatic mutations. Interestingly, potential precursor sequences were identified in naive B cell repertoires from 48 healthy individuals who were sampled before the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies are readily generated from a diverse pool of precursors, fostering hope for rapid induction of a protective immune response upon vaccination.Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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