화학공학소재연구정보센터
Science, Vol.353, No.6307, 1557-1560, 2016
Priming HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibody precursors in human Ig loci transgenic mice
A major obstacle to a broadly neutralizing antibody (bnAb)-based HIV vaccine is the activation of appropriate B cell precursors. Germline-targeting immunogens must be capable of priming rare bnAb precursors in the physiological setting. We tested the ability of the VRCO1-class bnAb germline-targeting immunogen eOD-GT8 60mer (60-subunit self-assembling nanoparticle) to activate appropriate precursors in mice transgenic for human immunoglobulin (Ig) loci. Despite an average frequency of, at most, about one VRCO1-class precursor per mouse, we found that at least 29% of singly immunized mice produced a VRCO1-class memory response, suggesting that priming generally succeeded when at least one precursor was present. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using germline targeting to prime specific and exceedingly rare bnAb-precursor B cells within a humanlike repertoire.