A Neutralizing Antibody-Conjugated Photothermal Nanoparticle Captures and Inactivates SARS-CoV-2

The outbreak of 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in a global pandemic. Despite intensive research including several clinical trials, currently there are no completely safe or effective therapeutics to cure the disease. Here we report a strategy incorporating neutralizing antibodies conjugated on the surface of a photothermal nanoparticle to actively capture and inactivate SARS-CoV-2. The photothermal nanoparticle is comprised of a semiconducting polymer core and a biocompatible polyethylene glycol surface decorated with neutralizing antibodies. Such nanoparticles displayed efficient capture of SARS-CoV-2 pseudoviruses, excellent photothermal effect, and complete inhibition of viral entry into ACE2-expressing host cells via simultaneous blocking and inactivating of the virus. This photothermal nanoparticle is a flexible platform that can be readily adapted to other SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and extended to novel therapeutic proteins, thus providing a broad range of protection against multiple strains of SARS-CoV-2. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=192 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/404624v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (66K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@44a5a8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d7bcd5org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ae6e70org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d4a4f5_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG