Human Monoclonal Antibodies That Neutralize Pandemic GII.4 Noroviruses

Human noroviruses are responsible for approximately 200,000 deaths worldwide each year. However, our understanding of the human norovirus-specific antibody response is limited because few human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to noroviruses have been described, and there are no functional assays to measure virus neutralization.

The team used PBMCs from human participants with a previous history of norovirus infection (GII.4 Sydney) in order to generate hybridoma cell lines that secrete norovirus reactive antibody. They successfully isolated 18 monoclonal antibodies that blocked receptor binding of norovirus-VLPs. Importantly, a subset of these antibodies were shown to efficiently neutralize live virus. This paper is significant, because it is the first to describe norovirus-neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies, which have potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Read more in: Alvarado et al., 2018, Gastroenterology, Volume 155, Issue 6, December 2018, Pages 1661-1663. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2018.08.039