Delineating antibody recognition in polyclonal sera from patterns of HIV-1 isolate neutralization

Science. 2013 May 10;340(6133):751-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1233989.

Abstract

Serum characterization and antibody isolation are transforming our understanding of the humoral immune response to viral infection. Here, we show that epitope specificities of HIV-1-neutralizing antibodies in serum can be elucidated from the serum pattern of neutralization against a diverse panel of HIV-1 isolates. We determined "neutralization fingerprints" for 30 neutralizing antibodies on a panel of 34 diverse HIV-1 strains and showed that similarity in neutralization fingerprint correlated with similarity in epitope. We used these fingerprints to delineate specificities of polyclonal sera from 24 HIV-1-infected donors and a chimeric siman-human immunodeficiency virus-infected macaque. Delineated specificities matched published specificities and were further confirmed by antibody isolation for two sera. Patterns of virus-isolate neutralization can thus afford a detailed epitope-specific understanding of neutralizing-antibody responses to viral infection.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Neutralizing / blood
  • Antibodies, Neutralizing / immunology*
  • Epitope Mapping
  • HIV Antibodies / blood
  • HIV Antibodies / immunology*
  • HIV Infections / blood
  • HIV Infections / immunology*
  • HIV-1 / immunology*
  • HIV-1 / isolation & purification
  • Humans
  • Immunodominant Epitopes / chemistry
  • Immunodominant Epitopes / immunology
  • Macaca
  • Neutralization Tests
  • Protein Conformation
  • Serum / immunology

Substances

  • Antibodies, Neutralizing
  • HIV Antibodies
  • Immunodominant Epitopes

Associated data

  • PDB/4J6R
  • PDB/4JB9