Recently, recombinant monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) of three Ig isotypes (IgG, IgA, and IgM) sharing the same anti-spike protein Fab region were developed; we evaluated their neutralizing abilities using a pseudo-typed lentivirus coated with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and ACE2-transfected Crandell-Rees feline kidney cells as the host cell line. Although each of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 mAbs was able to neutralize the spike-coated lentiviruses, IgM and IgA neutralized the viral particles at 225-fold and 125-fold lower concentrations, respectively, than that of IgG. Our finding that the neutralization ability of Igs with the same Fab domain was dramatically higher for IgM and IgA than IgG mAbs suggests a strategy for developing effective and affordable antibody therapies for COVID-19. The efficient neutralization conferred by IgM and IgA mAbs can be explained by their capacity to bind multiple virions. While several IgG mAbs have been approved as therapeutics by the FDA, there are currently no IgM or IgA mAbs available. We suggest that mAbs with multiple antigen-binding sites such as IgM and IgA could be developed as the new generation of therapy.
Keywords: COVID-19; IgA; IgG; IgM; SARS-CoV-2; neutralizing antibody.