January 20, 2021

SARS-CoV-2 501Y.V2 Escapes Neutralization by South African COVID-19 Donor Plasma

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Vaccines and Immunity

Keywords (Tags): treatment

[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] The spike protein mutations in the 501Y.V2 lineage first identified in South Africa conferred neutralization escape from multiple classes of SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies, including two major classes targeting an immunodominant, highly antigenic site in the receptor binding domain of the spike protein. This lineage also showed substantial or complete escape from neutralizing antibodies in COVID-19 convalescent plasma and nearly half of samples assessed (21 of 44, 48%) had no detectable neutralization activity. However, polyclonal antibodies in convalescent plasma obtained after recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection retained high levels of binding antibodies to the 501Y.V2 receptor binding domain.

Wibmer et al. (Jan 19, 2021). SARS-CoV-2 501Y.V2 Escapes Neutralization by South African COVID-19 Donor Plasma. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.18.427166