Recent advances in therapeutic applications of neutralizing antibodies for virus infections: an overview

Abstract

Antibodies are considered as an excellent foundation to neutralize pathogens and as highly specific therapeutic agents. Antibodies are generated in response to a vaccine but little use as immunotherapy to combat virus infections. A new generation of broadly cross-reactive and highly potent antibodies has led to a unique chance for them to be used as a medical intervention. Neutralizing antibodies (monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies) are desirable for pharmaceutical products because of their ability to target specific epitopes with their variable domains by precise neutralization mechanisms. The isolation of neutralizing antiviral antibodies has been achieved by Phage displayed antibody libraries, transgenic mice, B cell approaches, and hybridoma technology. Antibody engineering technologies have led to efficacy improvements, to further boost antibody in vivo activities. “Although neutralizing antiviral antibodies have some limitations that hinder their full development as therapeutic agents, the potential for prevention and treatment of infections, including a range of viruses (HIV, Ebola, MERS-COV, CHIKV, SARS-CoV, and SARS-CoV2), are being actively pursued in human clinical trials.”

Co-Immunization With CHIKV VLP and DNA Vaccines Induces a Promising Humoral Response in Mice

“…Currently, there are no licensed CHIKV vaccines available for use; however, potential vaccine candidates are classified into seven types: inactivated vaccines, subunit vaccines, live-attenuated vaccines, recombinant virus-vectored vaccines, virus-like particle vaccines, chimeric vaccines, and nucleic acid vaccines ( 9 , 10 ). Virus-like particles (VLPs) are generated by expression of the CHIKV structural cassette from a DNA expression plasmid transfected into human cells.…”

Complement-Opsonized Nano-Carriers Are Bound by Dendritic Cells (DC) via Complement Receptor (CR)3, and by B Cell Subpopulations via CR-1/2, and Affect the Activation of DC and B-1 Cells

“…In fact, it has been demonstrated that the presence [77] and triggering [78] of CR1/2 on B cells is required to mount sustained antigen-specific antibody production. In the case of a pathogen-specific nano-vaccine, the candidate antigen would be a pathogen-specific surface protein in order to induce neutralizing antibodies [79]. Alternatively (or in addition), a pathogen-derived protein, which would be apparent on the surface of infected cells [80], would be a suitable antigen, inducing the production of antibodies that recognize infected cells, and trigger classical complement activation [81] or antibody-dependent cytotoxicity [82].…”

Vaccines and Antivirals: Grand Challenges and Great Opportunities

“…Both polyclonal and monoclonal neutralizing antibodies can be potentially used as antivirals because of their capacity to target specific epitopes. Despite some limitations of neutralizing antiviral antibodies as therapeutic agents, they have potential for prevention and treatment of several viral infections (Ebola, HIV, chikungunya virus, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2) (38). The CRISPR/Cas-9 technology is being used in different antiviral strategies, including: (i) modification of viral entry receptors, (ii) knock-down of host viral factors, (iii) induction of host restrictions factors, (iv) excision and removal of viral genomes that are integrated in the host genome or persisting as episomes (39,40).…”