Structures of SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 neutralizing antibodies provide insights into cocktail design against concerning variants

In summary, we have characterized eight SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 neutralizing antibodies using cryo-EM. Structural analyses suggest that five of them directly antagonize the binding of ACE2, whereas the neutralization mechanisms of the other three do not depend on ACE2 blocking. Together with BD-515 and BD-623 that we described previously,4 we have collected ten neutralizing antibodies that can potentially serve as prophylactics and therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 (Fig. 1h). Many of these antibodies have non-overlapping epitopes, and multiple combination strategies can be designed based on their structural information (Fig. 1i). In particular, BD-812 and BD-836 both remain fully efficacious towards the B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 variants, and therefore the BD-812/BD-836 pair could serve as an ideal antibody cocktail against the SARS-CoV-2 VOCs.