Broad and potent cross clade neutralizing antibodies with multiple specificities in the plasma of HIV-1 subtype C infected individuals.

Narayanaiah, C.; Precilla, L.K.; Hemalatha, B.; Vidya Vijayan, K.K.,; Ashokkumar, M.; Padmapriyadasrsini, C.; Kailasam, N.; Sundaramurthi, J.C.; Swaminathan, S.; Buddolla, V.; Vaniambadi, S.K.; Ramanathan, V.D.; Hanna, L.E .

Science Report; 2017; 24; 46557.

Abstract: Broadly Cross clade Neutralizing (BCN) antibodies are recognized as potential therapeutic tools and leads for the design of a vaccine that can protect human beings against various clades of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). In the present study, we screened plasma of 88 HIV-1 infected ART naïve individuals for their neutralization potential using a standard panel of 18 pseudoviruses belonging to different subtypes and different levels of neutralization. We identified 12 samples with good breadth of neutralization (neutralized >90% of the viruses). Four of these samples neutralized even the difficult-to-neutralize tier-3 pseudoviruses with great potency (GMT > 600). Analysis of neutralization specificities indicated that four samples had antibodies with multiple epitope binding specificities, viz . CD4-binding site (CD4BS), glycans in the V1/V2 and V3 regions and membrane proximal external region (MPER). Our findings indicate the strong possibility of identifying highly potent bNAbs with known or novel specificities from HIV-1 subtype C infected individuals from India that can be exploited as therapeutic tools or lead molecules for the identification of potential epitopes for design of a protective HIV-1 vaccine.

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