Human broadly neutralizing antibodies to the envelope glycoprotein complex of hepatitis C virus

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Erick Giang
  • Marcus Dorner
  • Prentø, Jannick
  • Marlène Dreux
  • Matthew J Evans
  • Bukh, Jens
  • Charles M Rice
  • Alexander Ploss
  • Dennis R Burton
  • Mansun Law

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects ∼2% of the world's population. It is estimated that there are more than 500,000 new infections annually in Egypt, the country with the highest HCV prevalence. An effective vaccine would help control this expanding global health burden. HCV is highly variable, and an effective vaccine should target conserved T- and B-cell epitopes of the virus. Conserved B-cell epitopes overlapping the CD81 receptor-binding site (CD81bs) on the E2 viral envelope glycoprotein have been reported previously and provide promising vaccine targets. In this study, we isolated 73 human mAbs recognizing five distinct antigenic regions on the virus envelope glycoprotein complex E1E2 from an HCV-immune phage-display antibody library by using an exhaustive-panning strategy. Many of these mAbs were broadly neutralizing. In particular, the mAb AR4A, recognizing a discontinuous epitope outside the CD81bs on the E1E2 complex, has an exceptionally broad neutralizing activity toward diverse HCV genotypes and protects against heterologous HCV challenge in a small animal model. The mAb panel will be useful for the design and development of vaccine candidates to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies to HCV.

Original languageEnglish
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume109
Issue number16
Pages (from-to)6205-10
Number of pages6
ISSN0027-8424
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Apr 2012

    Research areas

  • Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Antibodies, Neutralizing, Antibody Specificity, Antigens, CD81, Cell Line, Tumor, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte, Genotype, HEK293 Cells, Hepacivirus, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis C Antibodies, Humans, Immunoblotting, Mice, Molecular Sequence Data, Peptide Library, Viral Envelope Proteins, Viral Hepatitis Vaccines

ID: 131072702