Antibody-dependent-cellular-cytotoxicity-inducing antibodies significantly affect the post-exposure treatment of Ebola virus infection

Passive immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) is an efficacious treatment for Ebola virus (EBOV) infections in animal models and humans. Understanding what constitutes a protective response is critical for the development of novel therapeutic strategies. We generated an EBOV-glycoprotein-pseudotyped Human immunodeficiency virus to develop sensitive neutralizing and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) assays as well as a bioluminescent-imaging-based mouse infection model that does not require biosafety level 4 containment. The in vivo treatment efficiencies of three novel anti-EBOV mAbs at 12 h post-infection correlated with their in vitro anti-EBOV ADCC activities, without neutralizing activity. When they were treated with these mAbs, natural killer cell (NK)-deficient mice had lower viral clearance than WT mice, indicating that the anti-EBOV mechanism of the ADCC activity of these mAbs is predominantly mediated by NK cells. One potent anti-EBOV mAb (M318) displayed unprecedented neutralizing and ADCC activities (neutralization IC50, 0.018 μg/ml; ADCC EC50, 0.095 μg/ml). These results have important implications for the efficacy of antiviral drugs and vaccines as well as for pathogenicity studies of EBOV.