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1 School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AJ, UK
2 Abnova (Taiwan) Corporation, 9th Floor, 108 Jou Tz Street, Neihu, Taipei 114, Taiwan ROC
3 Division of Infection & Immunity, University College London, 46 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JF, UK
Correspondence
I. M. Jones
i.m.jones{at}rdg.ac.uk
| ABSTRACT |
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A supplementary figure and a supplementary table are available with the online version of this paper.
| INTRODUCTION |
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The basis of the failure to generate high-titre neutralizing immune responses has been attributed to active immune evasion mechanisms developed by HIV over time, such as glycan shrouding of sensitive sites (Wei et al., 2003
), profuse sequence variation at key sites (Catasti et al., 1995
, 1996
; Zolla-Pazner et al., 1999
) and structural heterogeneity (Moore et al., 2006
; Yuan et al., 2006
). As a result, each of these areas has become a focus for immunogen design that might elicit more beneficial immune responses than the wild-type molecule. Recent examples include the purposeful engineering of glycan sites to enhance immunogenicity (Li et al., 2008
), forced immune focus on V3 (Zolla-Pazner et al., 2008
) and the generation of subunit gp120 immunogens such as the outer domain (OD) (Chen et al., 2007
; Yang et al., 2004
). The rationale for the latter strategy has been clarification of the role of the structural flexibility of gp120 in the immune response through comparisons between the crystal structures of free gp120 and ligand-bound gp120 (Chen et al., 2005
; Kwong et al., 1998
). These show that, of the three structurally defined features, inner domain, bridging sheet and OD, only the OD remains as an inflexible component following receptor binding (Yang et al., 2004
; Zhou et al., 2007
). The isolated OD is therefore a potentially invariant three-dimensional target for vaccine design, providing that a response can be generated which contains antibodies with appropriate specificity (Pantophlet & Burton, 2006
; Zhou et al., 2007
).
Preliminary immunization with the isolated OD of HIV-1 YU2, a clade B virus, yielded a response that did not focus on the V3 loop, wholly present within the OD, possibly as a result of loop cleavage (Yang et al., 2004
). However, a similar immunization using the OD from HIV-1 CN54, a clade C isolate (Rodenburg et al., 2001
; Su et al., 2000
), fused to the human Fc domain resulted in a strong response that could be mapped to the V3C3 region of gp120 through the use of bacterially expressed gp120 fragments (Chen et al., 2007
). Fc fusion appeared to target antigen uptake to FcR-bearing antigen-presenting cells, as immunization with an Fc fusion domain mutated in the FcR binding site was far less immunogenic (Chen et al., 2007
). However, the fine specificity of the response was not described, meaning it could not be determined whether V3 dominated the response (as might be expected), whether other specificities were present, whether the serum was neutralizing or whether substitution of the loop could be used to redirect the response. As noted, OD is a vaccine target primarily because of its invariant structure, but its presentation of the V3 loop is also of interest, as several strategies directly address the V3 loop despite its relatively poor exposure on primary isolates (Hartley et al., 2005
; Zolla-Pazner, 2005
; Zolla-Pazner et al., 2008
) and the increasing realization that V3 reactivity can be more broadly neutralizing than once thought (Pantophlet et al., 2007
; Zolla-Pazner et al., 2008
). Here, using HuFc fusion as an immune enhancer, we compare serum responses to the CN54 OD and parallel constructs lacking the V3 loop or with the V3 loop replaced by the epitope for Hu-mAb 2F5 (Muster et al., 1994
). The range of epitopes possible was assessed by generation of a mAb panel to the CN54 OD, followed by their epitope specificity and ability to neutralize.
| METHODS |
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Recombinant baculovirus infections.
Infections for virus growth were performed at an m.o.i. of 0.01 and, for protein expression, an m.o.i. of 3. Virus growth was typically for 6 days or until there was considerable cytopathic effect. Sf9 cells infected for protein expression were harvested 72 h post-infection (p.i.) and the mannosylated protein present in the supernatant was purified as described below.
Protein purification.
Sf9 cells at a density of 1–2x106 ml–1 were infected with the required recombinant baculoviruses; supernatants from virus-infected cells were harvested at 3 days p.i. The supernatants were clarified by filtration (0.45 µm) and applied to a column of lentil lectin Sepharose 4B (10 ml resin per litre processed supernatant, flow rate of 1 ml min–1). The column was washed to background absorbance with 20 mM Tris/HCl pH 7.4, 0.5 M NaCl and the column was eluted using three column volumes of 1 M methyl
-D-glucopyranoside. Positive absorption fractions were pooled and desalted before application to a pre-packed protein A column (Bio-Rad). The column was washed and eluted as described by the manufacturer. Eluted proteins were pooled and desalted into TBS and the protein concentration was determined by a modified Bradford assay (Sigma). Where necessary, the proteins were concentrated by spin filtration and stored at 0.5 mg ml–1 at –80 °C.
ELISA.
Microtitre plates (Thermo Labsystems) were coated overnight with purified proteins at 10 µg ml–1 in 200 mM sodium bicarbonate. The plates were rinsed several times with Tris-buffered saline (TBS) containing 5 % w/v dried milk powder and used immediately. Primary antibodies, diluted in TBS containing 0.05 % v/v Tween-20 (TBST), were incubated with antigen for 60 min at room temperature. Unbound antibody was removed by washing five times with TBST and the plate was incubated with HRP-conjugated anti-mouse antibody (1 : 1000; Chemicon) for 1 h at room temperature. The plate was washed extensively and incubated with 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine dihydrochloride chromagenic substrate (Europa Bioproducts). The reaction was stopped by addition of an equal volume of 0.5 M HCl and the absorbance was read at 410 nm.
SDS-PAGE and Western blotting.
Protein samples were separated on pre-cast 10 % Tris/HCl SDS-polyacrylamide gels (Bio-Rad) and transferred to Immobilion-P membranes (Millipore) using a semi-dry blotter. Filters were blocked for 1 h at room temperature using TBST containing 5 % w/v dried milk powder. Primary antibodies were used at a dilution of 1 : 500 in PBS containing 0.1 % Tween-20 (PBST) containing 5 % w/v dried milk powder, unless otherwise stated. Following several washes with TBST, the membranes were incubated for 1 h with HRP-conjugated anti-mouse antibody (Chemicon) and the bound antibodies were detected by BM chemiluminescence (Roche).
Immunization.
Groups of three BALB/c mice were immunized subcutaneously with 10 µg purified OD fusion protein at 2 week intervals. No additional adjuvant was used. For polyclonal antibody production, the individual sera from a group were pooled and the anti-Fc reactive component was removed by incubation with an excess of HCV E2-Fc fusion protein overnight. Antigen–antibody complexes were removed by centrifugation and the residual serum was assessed by Western blotting on gp120-Fc and HCV E2-Fc. If necessary, the adsorption was repeated until reactivity was shown only with the gp120 fusion protein. For mAb production, spleens were harvested for fusion to myeloma cells at 60 days post-immunization. Following fusion, cell lines were isolated by limiting dilution and their specificity was determined by ELISA of the supernatants on the immunogen and a non-related Fc fusion protein (HCV E2-Fc). Positive lines were recloned and the isotypes were determined by the mouse monoclonal antibody isotyping kit (Sigma).
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
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Following expression using high-throughput baculovirus formation (Zhao et al., 2003
), recombinant proteins were purified from the supernatent of infected insect cells by two-stage affinity purification. The eluted proteins were characterized by reducing SDS-PAGE and Western blotting; they were essentially pure, of the anticipated molecular mass and showed little evidence of breakdown (Fig. 1a
). In particular, significant cleavage of the V3 loop was not apparent in the parental molecule, in contrast to that described for the HIV YU2 OD (Yang et al., 2004
). When the purified proteins were used as antigens in ELISA, each OD-Fc fusion protein reacted equivalently with mAb 2G12, although the level of OD(DL3) was marginally reduced when compared with the other two (Fig. 1b
). As expected, only OD(2F5)-Fc reacted with human mAb 2F5 (Fig. 1c
). As before (Chen et al., 2007
), b12 binding to each OD construct was found to be negligible (data not shown). Purified proteins were used to immunize BALB/c mice (n=3) in a standard immunization regimen using 10 µg protein at 2 weekly intervals for 6 weeks. The sera from each group (two per construct) were pooled and reactivity with non-tagged CN54 gp120 was tested by ELISA. While all the OD constructs were immunogenic in the Fc fusion format, overall reactivity was severely reduced in the sera generated using OD(DL3)-Fc and OD(2F5)-Fc when compared with the parental OD-Fc molecule (Fig. 2a
). Although it was lower in titre, the response to the two deleted molecules of the V3 loop was further analysed using Western blotting with these sera on a variety of antigens, including the homologous immunogens OD(DL3)-Fc or OD(2F5)-Fc, a non-Fc but His-tagged OD (OD-His), deglycosylated OD-His and an unrelated fusion protein consisting of the Yersinia pestis capsular protein caf1 fused to the 2F5 epitope (R-947). The pooled serum response to the loop-deleted variant OD(DL3)-Fc showed equivalent reactivity with OD(DL3)-Fc, OD(2F5)-Fc and glycosylated OD-His, but improved reactivity to the deglycosylated form of OD-His. No reactivity was apparent with R-947 (Fig. 2b
). The pooled serum to OD(2F5)-Fc showed preferential binding to the cognate antigen when compared with the OD(DL3)-Fc serum (Fig. 2a, b
, compare lanes 1 and 2), similar preferential binding to deglycosylated OD-His when compared with the glycosylated form (compare lanes 3 and 4) and distinct reactivity to R-947 (Fig. 2c
, lane 5). From these data, we conclude that the OD is immunogenic but that much of the immunogenicity resides in the V3 loop. Despite a lower titre response, the loopless OD variants retain a level of immunogenicity which includes a response to grafted epitopes such as the 2F5 epitope used here. In keeping with the observation of glycan shielding (Wei et al., 2003
), we observed marginal but consistent increases (about 25 % based on densitometry) in signal when deglycosylated OD was used as an antigen.
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50 %) neutralization of all three viruses at 50 µg ml–1. The established cross-clade neutralizing antibody b12 directed at the CD4 binding of gp120 site failed to neutralize CN54 and was less effective than 2B7 with 93MW965.26 (Fig. 5
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| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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Received 23 April 2008;
accepted 16 June 2008.
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