Experimental animal data show that protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection with human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) is feasible. For an effective immune prophylaxis in humans, broad coverage of different strains of SARS-CoV and control of potential neutralization escape variants will be required. Combinations of virus-neutralizing, noncompeting mAbs may have these properties. Human mAb CR3014 has been shown to completely prevent lung pathology and abolish pharyngeal shedding of SARS-CoV in infected ferrets. We generated in vitro SARS-CoV variants escaping neutralization by CR3014, which all had a single P462L mutation in the glycoprotein spike (S) of the escape virus. In vitro experiments confirmed that binding of CR3014 to a recombinant S fragment (amino acid residues 318–510) harboring this mutation was abolished. We therefore screened an antibody-phage library derived from blood of a convalescent SARS patient for antibodies complementary to CR3014. A novel mAb, CR3022, was identified that neutralized CR3014 escape viruses, did not compete with CR3014 for binding to recombinant S1 fragments, and bound to S1 fragments derived from the civet cat SARS-CoV-like strain SZ3. No escape variants could be generated with CR3022. The mixture of both mAbs showed neutralization of SARS-CoV in a synergistic fashion by recognizing different epitopes on the receptor-binding domain. Dose reduction indices of 4.5 and 20.5 were observed for CR3014 and CR3022, respectively, at 100% neutralization. Because enhancement of SARS-CoV infection by subneutralizing antibody concentrations is of concern, we show here that anti-SARS-CoV antibodies do not convert the abortive infection of primary human macrophages by SARS-CoV into a productive one. The combination of two noncompeting human mAbs CR3014 and CR3022 potentially controls immune escape and extends the breadth of protection. At the same time, synergy between CR3014 and CR3022 may allow for a lower total antibody dose to be administered for passive immune prophylaxis of SARS-CoV infection.

The human genome is revisited using exon and intron distribution profiles. The 26,564 annotated genes in the human genome (build October, 2003) contain 233,785 exons and 207,344 introns. On average, there are 8.8 exons and 7.8 introns per gene. About 80% of the exons on each chromosome are < 200 bp in length. < 0.01% of the introns are < 20 bp in length and < 10% of introns are more than 11,000 bp in length. These results suggest constraints on the splicing machinery to splice out very long or very short introns and provide insight to optimal intron length selection. Interestingly, the total length in introns and intergenic DNA on each chromosome is significantly correlated to the determined chromosome size with a coefficient of correlation r = 0.95 and r = 0.97, respectively. These results suggest their implication in genome design.

A ligand is located, at long last!: Members of the Nod-like receptor (NLR) family act as intracellular sensors of infection. Once they recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns, they assemble into signaling complexes called inflammasomes, which induce proinflammatory cytokines and pyroptotic cell death. Although rodent NLR family pyrin domain containing 1 (NLRP1) can recognize bacterial toxins and protozoan pathogens, the ligands for human NLRP1 have remained elusive. Robinson et al. found that human NLRP1 senses and is activated by enteroviruses. During human rhinovirus (HRV) infection, the HRV 3C protease cleaves an autoinhibitory N-terminal fragment from NLRP1, which is subsequently degraded. The NLRP1 C-terminal fragment that is released then initiates inflammasome formation. This work offers insights into immune sensing of respiratory viral infections and provides an example of the N-terminal glycine degron pathway in human innate immunity. Science , this issue p. eaay2002