Structure of a germline-like human antibody defines a neutralizing epitope on the SARS-CoV-2 spike NTD

Abstract

Structural characterization of infection- and vaccination-elicited antibodies in complex with antigen provides insight into the evolutionary arms race between the host and the pathogen and informs rational vaccine immunogen design. We isolated a germline-like monoclonal antibody (mAb) from plasmablasts activated upon mRNA vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 and determined its structure in complex with the spike glycoprotein by cryo-EM. We show that the mAb engages a previously uncharacterized neutralizing epitope on the spike N-terminal domain (NTD). The high-resolution structure reveals details of the intermolecular interactions and shows that the mAb inserts its HCDR3 loop into a hydrophobic NTD cavity previously shown to bind a heme metabolite, biliverdin. We demonstrate direct competition with biliverdin and that - because of the conserved nature of the epitope - the mAb maintains binding to viral variants B.1.1.7 and B.1.351. Our study illustrates the feasibility of targeting the NTD to achieve broad neutralization against SARS-CoV-2 variants.