Identifying Epitopes of Hiv-1 That Induce Protective Antibodies
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REVIEWS IDENTIFYING EPITOPES OF HIV-1 THAT INDUCE PROTECTIVE ANTIBODIES Susan Zolla-Pazner During the past 20 years, the pendulum of opinion in the HIV-1 vaccine field has swung between two extremes, initially favouring the induction of antibodies only, and subsequently favouring the induction of cell-mediated immune responses only. At present, the consensus seems to be that induction of both humoral and cellular immunity by an HIV-1 vaccine will be required to achieve maximum protection. One obstacle to the development of an effective HIV-1 vaccine has been the difficulty in inducing broadly reactive, potent antibodies with protective functions. Defining epitopes and designing immunogens that will induce these antibodies is one of the main challenges that now confronts the HIV-1 vaccine field. ACTIVE IMMUNIZATION Although cell-mediated immunity is crucial for control- ever be able to induce antibodies that are sufficiently The induction of immunity ling and eradicating infection by many viruses, antibodies broad and potent to provide protection. Many passive with immunogens that activate are pivotal in preventing or modulating infection1,2.Even immunization experiments in various experimental and expand the endogenous during early phases of infection, when the level of anti- models have, however, repeatedly established that immune repertoire, eliciting antibodies and cell-mediated bodies induced by ACTIVE IMMUNIZATION or administered antibodies can provide sterilizing immunity against immunity, as well as by PASSIVE IMMUNIZATION is low, antibodies can reduce the HIV-1 (REFS 6–9).In addition, passive immunization immunological memory that size of the infecting inoculum and neutralize or elimi- experiments indicate that antibodies reduce the size of might last for decades. nate virions during the first rounds of replication. This the infectious inoculum and allow the development PASSIVE IMMUNIZATION provides sufficient transient protection so that the of more effective cellular and humoral immune Immunity that is provided cellular arm of the immune response can respond with responses to the breakthrough virus3.These studies rapidly by the transfer of proliferation and deployment of effector T cells that are provide convincing data in all of the experimental immunoglobulins, the maximal activity of which lasts for ~2–3 required to eliminate virus-infected cells. Data indicate models tested that neutralizing antibodies with weeks before it wanes due to that this model is applicable to infection with HIV-1, appropriate specificity — when present in sufficient catabolic destruction. simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and the chimeric concentrations — are a correlate of immune protec- simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV)3–5. tion. Even in humans, some studies indicate that anti- Despite extensive data supporting the general bodies transferred across the placenta might protect importance of antibodies in preventing virus infec- against transmission of HIV-1 from infected pregnant tions (FIG. 1),perceptions about the role of antibodies women to their infants10,11, although more studies of in preventing infection with HIV-1 have varied this controversial issue in humans are required. New York Veterans Affairs markedly over the past 20 years. Opinions have ranged Medical Center and NYU from the wildly optimistic views held in the late 1980s Protective mechanisms of antibodies School of Medicine, that antibodies would be sufficient to protect against Antibodies can protect against virus infection by many NewYork 10016, USA. infection, to the bleakest predictions of the mid-1990s mechanisms (FIG. 1).The main mode of protection that e-mail: zollas01@endeavor. med.nyu.edu that primary isolates were resistant to antibody- is induced by most antiviral vaccines seems to be doi:10.1038/nri1307 mediated neutralization and that no vaccine would mediated by neutralizing antibodies1.Neutralization NATURE REVIEWS | IMMUNOLOGY VOLUME 4 | MARCH 2004 | 199 © 2004 Nature Publishing Group REVIEWS e Complement- induced virolysis e Aggregation of infectious virions d Interruption of virus assembly a Blockade of virus– and maturation target-cell interaction d Inhibition b Blockade of post- of virus attachment stages budding Virus Viral proteins receptors d Prevention of Translation virus uncoating RNA Fusion Linear DNA Reverse transcription and nuclear import RNA c Inhibition of virus–cell fusion Transcription Figure 1 | Steps at which antibodies can potentially interfere with virus replication, using HIV-1 as an example. a | Antibodies can block the virus–target-cell interaction by several mechanisms, such as by: inhibiting the interaction of cell-derived molecules (such as adhesion molecules and lectins) carried in the virus envelope with their ligands on the surface of target cells; inhibiting the binding of virions to CD4 and co-receptors on the cell surface; and preventing conformational changes of the virus envelope that are required for subsequent steps in the virus life cycle. b | After attachment of the virus to target cells, antibodies can inhibit further conformational changes in the virus envelope glycoproteins that create or expose domains involved in virus–target-cell fusion. c | Antibodies can also block the protein domains that are involved in virus–cell fusion. d | At later stages in the virus life cycle, antibodies might be involved in: preventing virus uncoating after entry; interrupting virus assembly; preventing maturation of the virus particle; and inhibiting virus budding. e | Additional mechanisms of antibody-mediated neutralization include complement-induced virolysis and aggregation of infectious virions. is a generic term for the ability of antibodies to reduce has not yet been shown for HIV-1), blocking late the infectivity of a virus particle by interfering at one stages in the virus life cycle12.Therefore, antibodies of several different steps in the virus life cycle. For can prevent the primary uncoating of the virus in the example, antibodies can bind to molecules on the sur- cytoplasm, transcription steps in the nucleus, and face of virions and prevent their interaction with cell- virus assembly and budding at the cell membrane as surface lectins and with various receptors12,13.In the the virus exits the cell. case of HIV-1, this type of inhibition is attributed to Additional mechanisms by which antibodies can carbohydrate-specific antibodies that target the virus mediate protection include aggregation of virus parti- glycoproteins14,15,to antibodies that target different cles, which reduces the size of the inoculum and ren- adhesion molecules16, and to antibodies that are specific ders virions more susceptible to phagocytosis and for various regions of gp120 such as the CD4-binding destruction12, and lysis of enveloped viruses by binding domain, the ‘CD4-induced (CD4i) epitope’ (located to the virion and initiating the complement cascade22. in the bridging sheet of gp120 that is created or Antibodies might also attack virus-infected cells; for exposed when gp120 interacts with CD4)17, and the example, antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity V2 and V3 loops (see FIG. 2 and BOX 1). In addition, (ADCC) is a well-documented antiviral mechanism many ‘post-attachment’ mechanisms have been docu- that controls virus infection, which has been shown to mented. An example of this is provided by antibodies affect HIV-1-infected cells23,24. that prevent the fusion of virus and cell membranes. In the case of HIV-1, the human monoclonal anti- Identification of protective epitopes body 2F5 (described later) might be such an antibody, Given the ‘rediscovered’ importance of antibodies in the preventing either the formation of the gp41 coiled- prevention of HIV-1 infection25, it is necessary to re- coil form or the fusion of virus and the cell examine the question of which antibodies should be membrane18–21.Antibodies can also mediate post- induced and how this might be achieved. As the most fusion neutralization of many viruses (although this consistent correlate of immune protection against viral 200 | MARCH 2004 | VOLUME 4 www.nature.com/reviews/immunol © 2004 Nature Publishing Group REVIEWS infections is the presence of neutralizing antibodies1,12, Constant regions of the virus envelope as targets emphasis has been placed on identifying antibodies that Antibodies to epitopes in gp41. Several human mono- neutralize HIV-1. clonal antibodies specific for gp41 have been produced, As with most pathogens, HIV-1 induces a poly- and several epitopes within gp41 have been defined27,30,31 clonal antibody response to a wide array of epitopes (FIG. 3, TABLE 1 and BOX 1). However, only a small minority on different viral proteins26,27.Studies of polyclonal of gp41-specific antibodies have neutralizing activity. sera have helped to identify the specificities of anti- One human monoclonal antibody, 2F5, has been shown bodies that are associated with protection28,29,but it is to have broad neutralizing activity for diverse primary the study of human monoclonal antibodies that has HIV-1 isolates32.This monoclonal antibody recognizes most clearly defined the few epitopes that are located a core epitope of six amino acids within a relatively in the two envelope glycoproteins, gp120 and gp41, conserved 16-amino-acid linear sequence (NEQEL- that induce neutralizing antibodies in natural infec- LELDKWASLWN) in the ectodomain of gp41 near the tion (TABLE 1) and mediate protection against infection transmembrane region of the molecule33.Two