1. Adaptive multi-epitope targeting and avidity-enhanced nanobody platform for ultrapotent, durable antiviral therapy.
- Author
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Xiang Y, Xu J, McGovern BL, Ranzenigo A, Huang W, Sang Z, Shen J, Diaz-Tapia R, Pham ND, Teunissen AJP, Rodriguez ML, Benjamin J, Taylor DJ, van Leent MMT, White KM, García-Sastre A, Zhang P, and Shi Y
- Abstract
Pathogens constantly evolve and can develop mutations that evade host immunity and treatment. Addressing these escape mechanisms requires targeting evolutionarily conserved vulnerabilities, as mutations in these regions often impose fitness costs. We introduce adaptive multi-epitope targeting with enhanced avidity (AMETA), a modular and multivalent nanobody platform that conjugates potent bispecific nanobodies to a human immunoglobulin M (IgM) scaffold. AMETA can display 20+ nanobodies, enabling superior avidity binding to multiple conserved and neutralizing epitopes. By leveraging multi-epitope SARS-CoV-2 nanobodies and structure-guided design, AMETA constructs exponentially enhance antiviral potency, surpassing monomeric nanobodies by over a million-fold. These constructs demonstrate ultrapotent, broad, and durable efficacy against pathogenic sarbecoviruses, including Omicron sublineages, with robust preclinical results. Structural analysis through cryoelectron microscopy and modeling has uncovered multiple antiviral mechanisms within a single construct. At picomolar to nanomolar concentrations, AMETA efficiently induces inter-spike and inter-virus cross-linking, promoting spike post-fusion and striking viral disarmament. AMETA's modularity enables rapid, cost-effective production and adaptation to evolving pathogens., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests Y.X. and Y.S. are co-inventors on a provisional patent of AMETA technology filed by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The A.G.-S. laboratory has received research support from GSK, Pfizer, Senhwa Biosciences, Kenall Manufacturing, Blade Therapeutics, Avimex, Johnson & Johnson, Dynavax, 7Hills Pharma, Pharmamar, ImmunityBio, Accurius, Nanocomposix, Hexamer, N-fold LLC, Model Medicines, Atea Pharma, Applied Biological Laboratories, and Merck, outside of the reported work. A.G.-S. has consulting agreements for the following companies involving cash and/or stock: Castlevax, Amovir, Vivaldi Biosciences, Contrafect, 7Hills Pharma, Avimex, Pagoda, Accurius, Esperovax, Applied Biological Laboratories, Pharmamar, CureLab Oncology, CureLab Veterinary, Synairgen, Paratus, Pfizer, and Prosetta, outside of the reported work. A.G.-S. has been an invited speaker in meeting events organized by Seqirus, Janssen, Abbott, and AstraZeneca. A.G.-S. is an inventor of patents and patent applications on the use of antivirals and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of virus infections and cancer, owned by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, outside of the reported work. Y.X. and Y.S. are co-inventors on a patent of Nbs filed by Univ. of Pittsburgh. Y.S. is a co-founder of Antenna Biotech Inc., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2024
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