In vitro production of lectibody and bispecific antibodies targeting surface glycoproteins of SARS-CoV-2 by the novel off-the-shelf approach

Antibodies play a critical defensive role in virus infections in humans. Vaccine-induced immunity could protect humans from COVID-19 by producing neutralizing antibodies. However, viruses have multiple strategies to evade antiviral immune responses of the host, e.g., by hijacking the host glycosylations systems to coat virus surface with glycans. Whereas neutralizing antibodies bind viral surface proteins, lectins from natural sources are known to have high antiviral activities by binding to the surface glycans on enveloped viruses, including SARS-COV-2. The novel off-the-shelf approach by the protein ligation technology opens a new avenue to produce various lectin-Fc fusion in vitro, termed lectibody. Bispecific lectin-antibodies, which can engage NK cells or T-cells, could inhibit viral infections as well as remove infected cells. The off-the-shelf approach could produce various drug candidates in vitro rapidly and also particularly useful for rapidly emerging infectious diseases.