%A Rongtao Lai, Tianhui Zhou, Xiaogang Xiang, Jie Lu, Haiguang Xin, Qing Xie %T Neutralizing monoclonal antibodies present new prospects to treat SARS-CoV-2 infections %0 Journal Article %D 2021 %J Front. Med. %J Frontiers of Medicine %@ 2095-0217 %R 10.1007/s11684-021-0847-4 %P 644-648 %V 15 %N 4 %U {https://journal.hep.com.cn/fmd/EN/10.1007/s11684-021-0847-4 %8 2021-08-15 %X

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused global public health and economic crises. Thus, new therapeutic strategies and effective vaccines are urgently needed to cope with this severe pandemic. The development of a broadly neutralizing antibody against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is one of the attractive treatment strategies for COVID-19. Currently, the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike (S) protein is the main target of neutralizing antibodies when SARS-CoV-2 enters human cells through an interaction between the S protein and the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 expressed on various human cells. A single monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment is prone to selective pressure due to increased possibility of targeted epitope mutation, leading to viral escape. In addition, the antibody-dependent enhancement effect is a potential risk of enhancing the viral infection. These risks can be reduced using multiple mAbs that target nonoverlapping epitopes. Thus, a cocktail therapy combining two or more antibodies that recognize different regions of the viral surface may be the most effective therapeutic strategy.