1. Development of a VRC01-class germline targeting immunogen derived from anti-idiotypic antibodies.
- Author
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Seydoux E, Wan YH, Feng J, Wall A, Aljedani S, Homad LJ, MacCamy AJ, Weidle C, Gray MD, Brumage L, Taylor JJ, Pancera M, Stamatatos L, and McGuire AT
- Subjects
- Animals, Humans, Mice, AIDS Vaccines immunology, Germ Cells metabolism, HIV Antibodies immunology, HIV-1 immunology
- Abstract
An effective HIV-1 vaccine will likely need to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). Broad and potent VRC01-class bNAbs have been isolated from multiple infected individuals, suggesting that they could be reproducibly elicited by vaccination. Several HIV-1 envelope-derived germline-targeting immunogens have been designed to engage naive VRC01-class precursor B cells. However, they also present off-target epitopes that could hinder development of VRC01-class bNAbs. We characterize a panel of anti-idiotypic monoclonal antibodies (ai-mAbs) raised against inferred-germline (iGL) VRC01-class antibodies. By leveraging binding, structural, and B cell sorting data, we engineered a bispecific molecule derived from two ai-mAbs; one specific for VRC01-class heavy chains and one specific for VRC01-class light chains. The bispecific molecule preferentially activates iGL-VRC01 B cells in vitro and induces specific antibody responses in a murine adoptive transfer model with a diverse polyclonal B cell repertoire. This molecule represents an alternative non-envelope-derived germline-targeting immunogen that can selectively activate VRC01-class precursors in vivo., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)
- Published
- 2021
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