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Engineered antibodies to combat viral threats

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages globally, interest in antiviral treatments has never been higher. Antibodies are key defence components, and engineering them to better exploit their natural functions might boost therapeutic options.
  1. Xiaojie Yu

    1. Xiaojie Yu is in the Centre for Cancer Immunology, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK.

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  2. Mark S. Cragg

    1. Mark S. Cragg is in the Centre for Cancer Immunology, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK, and at the Institute for Life Sciences, University of Southampton.

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The use of antibodies to combat human disease dates back to the 1890s. At that time, the physiologist Emil von Behring used blood extracts from rabbits infected with the bacterium that causes diphtheria to tackle that infection. It was discovered only later that antibodies targeting the bacterium were the active ingredient. Amazingly, such serum therapy is still practised today. For example, blood (described as convalescent plasma) donated by people who have recovered from COVID-19, which contains antibodies targeting the SARS-CoV-2 virus, is used as a treatment for people with coronavirus infection. Writing in Nature, Bournazos et al.1 report progress in efforts to aid antiviral responses by engineering human antibodies to enhance their antiviral activity.

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Nature 588, 398-399 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03196-2

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Competing Interests

M.S.C. acts as a consultant for a number of biotech companies, being retained as a consultant for BioInvent, and has received research funding from BioInvent, GSK, UCB, iTeos and Roche. None of these associations relate to antiviral therapy.

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