The newly identified 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has caused more than 11,900 laboratory-confirmed human infections, including 259 deaths, posing a serious threat to human health. Currently, however, there is no specific antiviral treatment or vaccine. Considering the relatively high identity of receptor-binding domain (RBD) in 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV, it is urgent to assess the cross-reactivity of anti-SARS CoV antibodies with 2019-nCoV spike protein, which could have important implications for rapid development of vaccines and therapeutic antibodies against 2019-nCoV. Here, we report for the first time that a SARS-CoV-specific human monoclonal antibody, CR3022, could bind potently with 2019-nCoV RBD (KD of 6.3 nM). The epitope of CR3022 does not overlap with the ACE2 binding site within 2019-nCoV RBD. These results suggest that CR3022 may have the potential to be developed as candidate therapeutics, alone or in combination with other neutralizing antibodies, for the prevention and treatment of 2019-nCoV infections. Interestingly, some of the most potent SARS-CoV-specific neutralizing antibodies (e.g. m396, CR3014) that target the ACE2 binding site of SARS-CoV failed to bind 2019-nCoV spike protein, implying that the difference in the RBD of SARS-CoV and 2019-nCoV has a critical impact for the cross-reactivity of neutralizing antibodies, and that it is still necessary to develop novel monoclonal antibodies that could bind specifically to 2019-nCoV RBD.

中文翻译：

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SARS冠状病毒特异性人单克隆抗体与2019年新型冠状病毒刺突蛋白的有效结合。

新近确定的2019年新型冠状病毒（2019-nCoV）已导致超过11,900例实验室确认的人类感染，包括259例死亡，对人类健康构成了严重威胁。但是，目前尚无特定的抗病毒治疗或疫苗。考虑到2019-nCoV和SARS-CoV中受体结合域（RBD）的相对较高身份，迫切需要评估抗SARS CoV抗体与2019-nCoV峰值蛋白的交叉反应性，这可能对针对2019-nCoV的疫苗和治疗性抗体的快速开发。在这里，我们首次报告SARS-CoV特异性人类单克隆抗体CR3022可以与2019-nCoV RBD（6.3 nM的KD）有效结合。CR3022的表位不与2019-nCoV RBD中的ACE2结合位点重叠。这些结果表明，CR3022可能有可能单独或与其他中和抗体组合开发为候选疗法，用于预防和治疗2019-nCoV感染。有趣的是，一些针对SARS-CoV ACE2结合位点的最有效的SARS-CoV特异性中和抗体（例如，m396，CR3014）未能结合2019-nCoV峰值蛋白，这暗示SARS-CoV的RBD差异而2019-nCoV对中和抗体的交叉反应性具有至关重要的影响，并且仍然有必要开发能够特异性结合2019-nCoV RBD的新型单克隆抗体。