Engineered receptor binding domain immunogens elicit pan-sarbecovirus neutralizing antibodies outside the receptor binding motif.
Blake M HauserMaya SangeslandEvan C LamKerri J St DenisJared FeldmanAshraf S YousifTimothy M CaradonnaTy KannegieterAlejandro B BalazsDaniel LingwoodAaron G SchmidtPublished in: bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology (2021)
Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in the human population will be widespread due to natural infection and vaccination. However, another novel coronavirus will likely emerge in the future and may cause a subsequent pandemic. Humoral responses induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination provide limited protection against even closely related coronaviruses. We show immunization with a cocktail of trimeric coronavirus receptor binding domains induces a neutralizing antibody response that is broadened to related coronaviruses with pandemic potential. Importantly, this broadening occurs in context of an initial imprinted SARS-CoV-2 spike immunization showing that preexisting immunity can be expanded to recognize other related coronaviruses. Our immunogens focused the serum antibody response to conserved epitopes on the receptor binding domain outside of the ACE2 receptor binding motif; this contrasts with current SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic antibodies, which predominantly target the receptor binding motif.