American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, 6496(368), p. 1274-1278, 2020
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An antibody defense against COVID-19 One of the responses of the immune system to invading viruses is the production of antibodies. Some of these are neutralizing, meaning that they prevent the virus from being infectious, and can thus be used to treat viral diseases. Wu et al. isolated four neutralizing antibodies from a convalescent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patient. Two of the antibodies, B38 and H4, blocked the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the viral spike protein from binding to the cellular receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). The structure of the RBD bound to B38 shows that the B38-binding site overlaps with the binding site for ACE2. Although H4 also blocks RBD binding to ACE2, it binds at a different site, and thus the two antibodies can bind simultaneously. This pair of antibodies could potentially be used together in clinical applications. Science , this issue p. 1274