Organoid-based neutralization assays reveal a distinctive profile of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and recapitulate the real-world efficacy
The efficacy of VIR-7831, a class 3 anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody (mAb), was demonstrated repeatedly in clinical trials; yet, reduced neutralization against Omicron variants in cell-line-based neutralization assays led to its withdrawal from clinical use. We developed organoid-based neutralization assays to measure mAb potency. We found that most class 3 mAbs, especially those not blocking receptor-binding domain-ACE2 binding, including VIR-7831, were substantially underestimated in cell-line-based assays. Nasal organoids adequately recapitulated the real-world effectiveness of VIR-7831 because of biologically relevant low ACE2 expression, and exclusively reproduced the in vivo protection of S2 mAbs due to the high TMPRSS2 expression, reminiscent of native human respiratory epithelial cells. Collectively, the robust organoid culture system and biologically relevant expression profiles of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 make nasal organoids present a correlate of in vivo protection of neutralizing mAbs exclusively. The organoid-based neutralization assays, superior to conventional cell-line-based assays, can recapitulate and predict the real-world efficacy of mAbs.
Authors
- Jiali Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6529-989X)
- Linqi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4931-509X)
- Jie Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2948-3873)
- Lin Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4753-3683)
- Yanlin Deng
- Kelvin Kai‐Wang To (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1921-5824)
- Weiwei Xue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3285-0574)
- Man Chun Chiu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9503-6396)
- Yifei Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8677-4650)
- Hin Chu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2855-9837)
- Hans Clevers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3077-5582)
- Zhixin Wan
- Qiaoshuai Lan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5524-3542)
- Jian‐Piao Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4077-3852)
- Chengfan Jiang
- Ying Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7319-609X)
- Xiaojuan Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2435-5837)
- Yong Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1303-0458)
- Zhiwei Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7626-3787)
- Shuxin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3798-6964)
- Cun Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3003-0000)
- Xiaoxin Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2948-3395)
- Zheng Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6188-6784)
- Jingjing Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0723-7716)
- Zijun Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6956-3648)
- Kwok-Yung Yuen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8700-4570)
Institutions
- Roche (Switzerland) (CH)
- Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (NL)
- Zimmer Biomet (Netherlands) (NL)
- Peking University (CN)
- Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HK)
- University Alliance (GB)
- Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK)
- National Clinical Research (US)
- Pantarei Design (China) (CN)
- Peking University Third Hospital (CN)
- Beijing Advanced Sciences and Innovation Center (CN)
- Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital (CN)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2025-08-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2509616122
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.58
Funders
- Innovation and Technology Commission
- Food and Health Bureau
- Peking University
- National Key Research and Development Program of China