ALBERT

Description: Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-specific monoclonal antibodies with extraordinary potency and breadth have recently been described. In humanized mice, combinations of monoclonal antibodies have been shown to suppress viraemia, but the therapeutic potential of these monoclonal antibodies has not yet been evaluated in primates with an intact immune system. Here we show that administration of a cocktail of HIV-1-specific monoclonal antibodies, as well as the single glycan-dependent monoclonal antibody PGT121, resulted in a rapid and precipitous decline of plasma viraemia to undetectable levels in rhesus monkeys chronically infected with the pathogenic simian-human immunodeficiency virus SHIV-SF162P3. A single monoclonal antibody infusion afforded up to a 3.1 log decline of plasma viral RNA in 7 days and also reduced proviral DNA in peripheral blood, gastrointestinal mucosa and lymph nodes without the development of viral resistance. Moreover, after monoclonal antibody administration, host Gag-specific T-lymphocyte responses showed improved functionality. Virus rebounded in most animals after a median of 56 days when serum monoclonal antibody titres had declined to undetectable levels, although, notably, a subset of animals maintained long-term virological control in the absence of further monoclonal antibody infusions. These data demonstrate a profound therapeutic effect of potent neutralizing HIV-1-specific monoclonal antibodies in SHIV-infected rhesus monkeys as well as an impact on host immune responses. Our findings strongly encourage the investigation of monoclonal antibody therapy for HIV-1 in humans.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4017780/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4017780/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Barouch, Dan H -- Whitney, James B -- Moldt, Brian -- Klein, Florian -- Oliveira, Thiago Y -- Liu, Jinyan -- Stephenson, Kathryn E -- Chang, Hui-Wen -- Shekhar, Karthik -- Gupta, Sanjana -- Nkolola, Joseph P -- Seaman, Michael S -- Smith, Kaitlin M -- Borducchi, Erica N -- Cabral, Crystal -- Smith, Jeffrey Y -- Blackmore, Stephen -- Sanisetty, Srisowmya -- Perry, James R -- Beck, Matthew -- Lewis, Mark G -- Rinaldi, William -- Chakraborty, Arup K -- Poignard, Pascal -- Nussenzweig, Michel C -- Burton, Dennis R -- AI055332/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI060354/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI078526/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI084794/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI095985/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI096040/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI100148/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI10063/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI100663/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- P01 AI100148/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- P40 OD012217/OD/NIH HHS/ -- P51 RR000168/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI084794/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R37 AI055332/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R56 AI091514/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- T32 AI007387/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- U19 AI066305/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- U19 AI078526/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- U19 AI095985/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- U19 AI096040/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- UM1 AI100663/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2013 Nov 14;503(7475):224-8. doi: 10.1038/nature12744. Epub 2013 Oct 30.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA [2] Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24172905" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: A challenge for HIV-1 immunogen design is the difficulty of inducing neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against neutralization-resistant (tier 2) viruses that dominate human transmissions. We show that a soluble recombinant HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein trimer that adopts a native conformation, BG505 SOSIP.664, induced NAbs potently against the sequence-matched tier 2 virus in rabbits and similar but weaker responses in macaques. The trimer also consistently induced cross-reactive NAbs against more sensitive (tier 1) viruses. Tier 2 NAbs recognized conformational epitopes that differed between animals and in some cases overlapped with those recognized by broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs), whereas tier 1 responses targeted linear V3 epitopes. A second trimer, B41 SOSIP.664, also induced a strong autologous tier 2 NAb response in rabbits. Thus, native-like trimers represent a promising starting point for the development of HIV-1 vaccines aimed at inducing bNAbs.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4498988/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4498988/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Sanders, Rogier W -- van Gils, Marit J -- Derking, Ronald -- Sok, Devin -- Ketas, Thomas J -- Burger, Judith A -- Ozorowski, Gabriel -- Cupo, Albert -- Simonich, Cassandra -- Goo, Leslie -- Arendt, Heather -- Kim, Helen J -- Lee, Jeong Hyun -- Pugach, Pavel -- Williams, Melissa -- Debnath, Gargi -- Moldt, Brian -- van Breemen, Marielle J -- Isik, Gozde -- Medina-Ramirez, Max -- Back, Jaap Willem -- Koff, Wayne C -- Julien, Jean-Philippe -- Rakasz, Eva G -- Seaman, Michael S -- Guttman, Miklos -- Lee, Kelly K -- Klasse, Per Johan -- LaBranche, Celia -- Schief, William R -- Wilson, Ian A -- Overbaugh, Julie -- Burton, Dennis R -- Ward, Andrew B -- Montefiori, David C -- Dean, Hansi -- Moore, John P -- 280829/European Research Council/International -- HHSN27201100016C/PHS HHS/ -- P01 AI082362/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- P51 OD011106/OD/NIH HHS/ -- P51OD011106/OD/NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI076105/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI084817/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R37 AI036082/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R56 AI084817/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- T32 GM007266/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- UM1 AI100663/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canada -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 10;349(6244):aac4223. doi: 10.1126/science.aac4223. Epub 2015 Jun 18.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA. Department of Medical Microbiology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, Netherlands. jpm2003@med.cornell.edu rws2002@med.cornell.edu. ; Department of Medical Microbiology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, Netherlands. ; Department of Immunology and Microbial Science, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Neutralizing Antibody Center, and Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. ; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA. ; International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Neutralizing Antibody Center, and Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. ; Division of Human Biology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA. ; International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, New York, NY 10004, USA. ; Pepscan Therapeutics, 8243RC Lelystad, Netherlands. ; Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53715, USA. ; Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, and Harvard, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ; Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. ; Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. ; Department of Immunology and Microbial Science, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Neutralizing Antibody Center, and Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, New York, NY 10004, USA. Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, and Harvard, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ; International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Neutralizing Antibody Center, and Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. ; Department of Immunology and Microbial Science, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Neutralizing Antibody Center, and Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, and Harvard, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA. jpm2003@med.cornell.edu rws2002@med.cornell.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26089353" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Most animal studies using passive administration of HIV broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (bnMAbs) have associated protection against high-dose mucosal viral challenge with relatively high serum concentrations of antibody. We recently identified several bnMAbs remarkable for their in vitro potency against HIV. Of these bnMAbs, PGT121 is one of the most...

Description: To guide vaccine design, we assessed whether human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) b12 and b6 against the CD4 binding site (CD4bs) on HIV-1 gp120 and F240 against an immundominant epitope on gp41 could prevent vaginal transmission of simian HIV (SHIV)-162P4 to macaques. The two anti-gp120 MAbs have similar monomeric gp120-binding properties, measured in vitro, but b12 is strongly neutralizing and b6 is not. F240 is nonneutralizing. Applied vaginally at a high dose, the strongly neutralizing MAb b12 provided sterilizing immunity in seven of seven animals, b6 in zero of five animals, and F240 in two of five animals. Compared with control animals, the protection by b12 achieved statistical significance, whereas that caused by F240 did not. For two of three unprotected F240-treated animals there was a trend toward lowered viremia. The potential protective effect of F240 may relate to the relatively strong ability of this antibody to capture infectious virions. Additional passive transfer experiments also indicated that the ability of the administered anti-gp120 MAbs to neutralize the challenge virus was a critical influence on protection. Furthermore, when data from all of the experiments were combined, there was a significant increase in the number of founder viruses establishing infection in animals receiving MAb b6, compared with other nonprotected macaques. Thus, a gp120-binding, weakly neutralizing MAb to the CD4bs was, at best, completely ineffective at protection. A nonneutralizing antibody to gp41 may have a limited capacity to protect, but the results suggest that the central focus of HIV-1 vaccine research should be on the induction of potently neutralizing antibodies.

Description: DNA transposon-based vectors have emerged as gene vehicles with a wide biomedical and therapeutic potential. So far, genomic insertion of such vectors has relied on the co-delivery of genetic material encoding the gene-inserting transposase protein, raising concerns related to persistent expression, insertional mutagenesis and cytotoxicity. This report describes potent DNA transposition achieved by direct delivery of transposase protein. By adapting integrase-deficient lentiviral particles (LPs) as carriers of the hyperactive piggyBac transposase protein (hyPBase), we demonstrate rates of DNA transposition that are comparable with the efficiency of a conventional plasmid-based strategy. Embedded in the Gag polypeptide, hyPBase is robustly incorporated into LPs and liberated from the viral proteins by the viral protease during particle maturation. We demonstrate lentiviral co-delivery of the transposase protein and vector RNA carrying the transposon sequence, allowing robust DNA transposition in a variety of cell types. Importantly, this novel delivery method facilitates a balanced cellular uptake of hyPBase, as shown by confocal microscopy, and allows high-efficiency production of clones harboring a single transposon insertion. Our findings establish engineered LPs as a new tool for transposase delivery. We believe that protein transduction methods will increase applicability and safety of DNA transposon-based vector technologies.

Description: Tetherin is an IFN-inducible transmembrane protein that inhibits the detachment of enveloped viruses from infected cells. HIV-1 overcomes this restriction factor by expressing HIV-1 viral protein U (Vpu), which down-regulates and degrades tetherin. We report that mutations in Vpu that impair tetherin antagonism increase the susceptibility of HIV-infected cells to...