High affinity mAb infusion can enhance maximum affinity maturation during HIV Env immunization

High affinity mAb infusion can enhance maximum affinity maturation during HIV Env immunization

Blog Article

Summary: Antigen-specific antibody infusion is known to enhance or suppress germinal center (GC) responses depending on the affinity of the infusion.We hypothesized that infusing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) of escalating affinity during an immunization regimen may progressively escalate selection pressure on competing B cells, increasing their affinity.To test this, we immunized mice with HIV envelope gp120 and infused CD4 binding-site (CD4bs)-specific johnny cash style clothing mAbs.While mAb infusion reduced somatic hypermutation (SHM) and affinity in most CD4bs-specific B cells, a sub-population was identified with greater SHM and affinity than control.

High-throughput sequencing of plasma cells revealed that CD4bs-specific plasma cells possessed elevated SHM after mAb infusion, with phylogenetic tree topology that suggested more rapid differentiation.We therefore conclude, here in accordance with other studies, that high-affinity mAb infusion primarily suppresses recruitment of most competing B cells but can increase and expedite affinity maturation of certain epitope-specific B cells.