China Capital Medical University, Institute of Microbiology of China Academy of Sciences, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology of China Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital and many other units participated in this study. The researchers isolated four kinds of human monoclonal antibodies from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a recovered patient with coronary heart disease.
Experiments show that these four antibodies have the ability to neutralize novel coronavirus. Among them, B38 and H4 antibodies can block the binding between the receptor binding domain of COVID-19 spike protein and its receptor "angiotensin converting enzyme 2(ACE2)" respectively.
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The role of two antibodies
Previous studies that revealed the infection mechanism of COVID-19 showed that the virus was mainly infected by the binding domain of spike protein receptor on its surface and ACE2 on human cells.
Experiments show that B38 and H4 recognize different epitopes of receptor binding domain, respectively, and mouse experiments confirm that these two antibodies can reduce the amount of virus infecting mice lungs, showing therapeutic effects. The two antibodies can also be mixed to inhibit virus infection more effectively.
The research team further analyzed the complex structure formed by COVID-19 spike protein receptor binding region and B38, thus revealing the molecular mechanism of B38 blocking virus infection. At present, these two antibodies have been transformed in related companies and are expected to be used in the clinical treatment of COVID-19 patients in the future.
China, a client of Xinhuanet, found a human monoclonal antibody that can block COVID-19 infection.