Title:Development of a Norovirus P Particle Platform for Eliciting Neutralizing Antibody Responses to the Membrane Proximal External Region of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Envelope
Volume: 21
Issue: 12
Author(s): Yang Zang, Jinpeng Bi, Dongchuan Du, Xintao Liu, Yan Zhang, Weiheng Su, Jiaxin Wu, Yaming Shan, Song Wang, Wei Kong, Aidong Qiu and Chunlai Jiang
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Broadly neutralizing antibody, guinea pig, HIV-1, MPER, norovirus P particles, vaccine.
Abstract: Eliciting efficient broadly neutralizing antibodies (BnAbs) is an important goal that has yet to be achieved for
human immunodeficiency type 1 (HIV-1) vaccine development, although they are rarely produced in virus-infected individuals.
In particular, inducing specific neutralizing antibodies to the gp41 membrane proximal external region (MPER)
has proven a difficult task. In this study, we introduce Norovirus P particles as a new platform to display the MPER epitope
of HIV-1 as a vaccine with the aim of enhancing immune responses. The results showed that HIV-1 chimeric P particles
were capable of inducing MPER-specific antibody responses in immunized guinea pigs, although only weakly neutralizing
activity could be detected. These findings are consistent with other previous studies which have also focused on
the well-studied 2F5 and 4E10 BnAbs. Our findings provide an alternate strategy for design of vaccines against HIV-1.
However, great challenges remain in the effort to develop vaccines that can induce efficient HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies.
