Paper

Ensovibep, a novel trispecific DARPin candidate that protects against SARS-CoV-2 variants

Amstutz, Patrick, Sacarcelik, Feyza, Reichen, Christian, Schlegel, Iris, Walser, Marcel, Looser, Thamar, Kershaw, Olivia, Lusvarghi, Sabrina, Comby, Marco, Schlegel, Anja, Bushe, Judith, Mayor, Jennifer, Ryter, Sarah, Abdelgawad, Azza, Watson, Randall, Stumpp, Michael T, Schaible, Doris, Nascimento, Mariana, Steiner, Daniel, Vassell, Russell, Zuercher, Alexander, Rothenberger, Sylvia, Moreno, Hector, Zitt, Christof, Balavenkatraman, Kamal K, Bosch, Berend-Jan, Engler, Olivier, Fontaine, Simon, Iss, Chloe, Wang, Wei, Sigrist, Gabriel, Bosshart, Andreas, Ramanathan, Krishnan, Neculcea, Alexandra, Weiss, Carol D, Kaufmann, Yvonne, Paladino, Maria, Hurdiss, Daniel L, Li, Wentao, Trimpert, Jakob, Villemagne, Denis, Schiegg, Dieter, Straumann, Marcel, Adler, Julia M, Du, Wenjuan, Binz, Kaspar, Malvezzi, Francesca, Calabro, Valerie, Lyoo, Heyrhyoung, Hospodarsch, Tanja, Neerukonda, Sabari N, Radom, Filip, Eschke, Kathrin, Cornelius, Andreas, Herrup, Rachel, Wolter, Julia, Dawson, Keith M, Mangold, Susanne, Lewis, Seth, Van Kuppeveld, Frank Jm, Knutson, Charles G, Liechti, Nicole, Drulyte, Ieva, Gruber, Achim D, Haeupt

2022

Overview

SARS-CoV-2 has infected millions of people globally and continues to undergo evolution. Emerging variants can be partially resistant to vaccine induced immunity and therapeutic antibodies, emphasizing the urgent need for accessible, broad-spectrum therapeutics. Here, we report a comprehensive study of ensovibep, the first trispecific clinical DARPin candidate, that can simultaneously engage all three units of the spike protein trimer to potently inhibit ACE2 interaction, as revealed by structural analyses. The cooperative binding of the individual modules enables ensovibep to retain inhibitory potency against all frequent SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron BA.1 and BA.2, as of February 2022. Moreover, viral passaging experiments show that ensovibep, when used as a single agent, can prevent development of escape mutations comparably to a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies (mAb). Finally, we demonstrate that the very high in vitro antiviral potency also translates into significant therapeutic protection and reduction of pathogenesis in Roborovski dwarf hamsters infected with either the SARS-CoV-2 wild-type or the Alpha variant. In this model, ensovibep prevents fatality and provides substantial protection equivalent to the standard of care mAb cocktail. These results support further clinical evaluation and indicate that ensovibep could be a valuable alternative to mAb cocktails and other treatments for COVID-19. Competing Interest Statement Authors from Molecular Partners own performance share units and/or stock of the company. H.K.B. owns stock of the company. I.D. is an employee of Thermo Fisher Scientific. C.G.K.; K.K.B. and K.R. are employees of Novartis. The other authors declare no competing interests. Footnotes * The revision includes additional data, highly relevant for the COVID-19 pandemic, incl. data from the viral strains delta and omicron BA.1 as well as BA.2.

• Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• Subject: COVID-19 / Immune response / Immunology / Infectivity / Monoclonal antibodies / Mutation / Pandemics / Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / Spike protein / Viruses