Production and Characterization of Neutralizing Antibodies

The mAbs studied in this paper (COV2-2196, COV2-2130, S309, S2E12, 2B04, 47D11, REGN10933, REGN10987, LY-CoV555, and CB6) have been described previously^{6 (link),8 (link),10 (link),44 ,48 -51 (link)}. COV2-2196 and COV2-2130 mAbs were produced after transient transfection using the Gibco ExpiCHO Expression System (ThermoFisher Scientific) following the manufacturer’s protocol. Culture supernatants were purified using HiTrap MabSelect SuRe columns (Cytiva, formerly GE Healthcare Life Sciences) on an AKTA Pure chromatographer (GE Healthcare Life Sciences). Purified mAbs were buffer-exchanged into PBS, concentrated using Amicon Ultra-4 50-kDa centrifugal filter units (Millipore Sigma) and stored at −80 °C until use. Purified mAbs were tested for endotoxin levels (found to be less than 30 EU per mg IgG). Endotoxin testing was performed using the PTS201F cartridge (Charles River), with a sensitivity range from 10 to 0.1 EU per mL, and an Endosafe Nexgen-MCS instrument (Charles River). S309, S2E12, REGN10933, REGN10987, CB6, and LY-CoV555 mAb proteins were produced in CHOEXPI cells and affinity purified using HiTrap Protein A columns (GE Healthcare, HiTrap mAb select Xtra #28-4082-61). Purified mAbs were suspended into 20 mM histidine, 8% sucrose, pH 6.0. The final products were sterilized by filtration through 0.22μm filters and stored at 4°C.