Multivalent antigen display on nanoparticle immunogens increases B cell clonotype diversity and neutralization breadth to pneumoviruses.

Nanoparticles for multivalent display and delivery of vaccine antigens have emerged as a promising avenue for enhancing B cell responses to protein subunit vaccines. Here, we evaluated B cell responses in rhesus macaques immunized with prefusion-stabilized respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) F glycoprotein trimer compared with nanoparticles displaying 10 or 20 copies of the same antigen. We show that multivalent display skews antibody specificities and drives epitope-focusing of responding B cells. Antibody cloning and repertoire sequencing revealed that focusing was driven by the expansion of clonally distinct B cells through recruitment of diverse precursors. We identified two antibody lineages that developed either ultrapotent neutralization or pneumovirus cross-neutralization from precursor B cells with low initial affinity for the RSV-F immunogen. This suggests that increased avidity by multivalent display facilitates the activation and recruitment of these cells. Diversification of the B cell response by multivalent nanoparticle immunogens has broad implications for vaccine design.
Competing Interests: Declaration of interests N.P.K., B.F., L.P., and J.M. are named as inventors on patent applications filed by the University of Washington related to the data presented in this work. N.P.K. is a co-founder and shareholder in Icosavax, a company that has licensed the patent applications, and is a member of Icosavax’s Scientific Advisory Board. The King lab has received unrelated sponsored research agreements from Pfizer and GSK. B.S.G. is an inventor on patents for the stabilization of the RSV-F protein (WO2014160463A1, preF RSV-F proteins and their use).
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