Development of potent and effective synthetic SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing nanobodies.

The respiratory virus responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has affected nearly every aspect of life worldwide, claiming the lives of over 3.9 million people globally, at the time of this publication. Neutralizing humanized nanobody (VH)-based antibodies (VH-huFc) represent a promising therapeutic intervention strategy to address the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and provide a powerful toolkit to address future virus outbreaks. Using a synthetic, high-diversity VH bacteriophage library, several potent neutralizing VH-huFc antibodies were identified and evaluated for their capacity to tightly bind to the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain, to prevent binding of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) to the cellular receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, and to neutralize viral infection. Preliminary preclinical evaluation of multiple VH-huFc antibody candidates demonstrate that they are prophylactically and therapeutically effective against SARS-CoV-2. The identified and characterized VH-huFc antibodies described herein represent viable candidates for further preclinical evaluation and another tool to add to our therapeutic arsenal to address the COVID-19 pandemic.