Despite the success of potent anti-retroviral drugs in controlling human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection, little progress has been made in generating an effective HIV-1 vaccine. ...Although passive transfer of anti-HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibodies can protect mice or macaques against a single high-dose challenge with HIV or simian/human (SIV/HIV) chimaeric viruses (SHIVs) respectively, the long-term efficacy of a passive antibody transfer approach for HIV-1 has not been examined. Here we show, on the basis of the relatively long-term protection conferred by hepatitis A immune globulin, the efficacy of a single injection (20 mg kg(-1)) of four anti-HIV-1-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (VRC01, VRC01-LS, 3BNC117, and 10-1074 (refs 9 - 12)) in blocking repeated weekly low-dose virus challenges of the clade B SHIVAD8. Compared with control animals, which required two to six challenges (median = 3) for infection, a single broadly neutralizing antibody infusion prevented virus acquisition for up to 23 weekly challenges. This effect depended on antibody potency and half-life. The highest levels of plasma-neutralizing activity and, correspondingly, the longest protection were found in monkeys administered the more potent antibodies 3BNC117 and 10-1074 (median = 13 and 12.5 weeks, respectively). VRC01, which showed lower plasma-neutralizing activity, protected for a shorter time (median = 8 weeks). The introduction of a mutation that extends antibody half-life into the crystallizable fragment (Fc) domain of VRC01 increased median protection from 8 to 14.5 weeks. If administered to populations at high risk of HIV-1 transmission, such an immunoprophylaxis regimen could have a major impact on virus transmission.
Highly potent and broadly neutralizing anti-HIV-1 antibodies (bNAbs) have been used to prevent and treat lentivirus infections in humanized mice, macaques, and humans. In immunotherapy experiments, ...administration of bNAbs to chronically infected animals transiently suppresses virus replication, which invariably returns to pre-treatment levels and results in progression to clinical disease. Here we show that early administration of bNAbs in a macaque simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) model is associated with very low levels of persistent viraemia, which leads to the establishment of T-cell immunity and resultant long-term infection control. Animals challenged with SHIV
by mucosal or intravenous routes received a single 2-week course of two potent passively transferred bNAbs (3BNC117 and 10-1074 (refs 13, 14)). Viraemia remained undetectable for 56-177 days, depending on bNAb half-life in vivo. Moreover, in the 13 treated monkeys, plasma virus loads subsequently declined to undetectable levels in 6 controller macaques. Four additional animals maintained their counts of T cells carrying the CD4 antigen (CD4
) and very low levels of viraemia persisted for over 2 years. The frequency of cells carrying replication-competent virus was less than 1 per 10
circulating CD4
T cells in the six controller macaques. Infusion of a T-cell-depleting anti-CD8β monoclonal antibody to the controller animals led to a specific decline in levels of CD8
T cells and the rapid reappearance of plasma viraemia. In contrast, macaques treated for 15 weeks with combination anti-retroviral therapy, beginning on day 3 after infection, experienced sustained rebound plasma viraemia when treatment was interrupted. Our results show that passive immunotherapy during acute SHIV infection differs from combination anti-retroviral therapy in that it facilitates the emergence of potent CD8
T-cell immunity able to durably suppress virus replication.
The induction of broadly reacting neutralizing antibodies has been a major goal of HIV vaccine research. Characterization of a pathogenic CCR5 (R5)-tropic SIV/HIV chimeric virus (SHIV) molecular ...clone (SHIV AD₈₋EO) revealed that eight of eight infected animals developed cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) directed against an envelope glycoprotein derived from the heterologous HIV-1 DH₁₂ strain. A panel of plasmas, collected from monkeys inoculated with either molecularly cloned or uncloned SHIV AD₈ stocks, exhibited cross-neutralization against multiple tier 1 and tier 2 HIV-1 clade B isolates. One SHIV AD₈-infected animal also developed NAbs against clades A and C HIV-1 strains. In this particular infected macaque, the cross-reacting anti–HIV-1 NAbs produced between weeks 7 and 13 were directed against a neutralization-sensitive virus strain, whereas neutralizing activities emerging at weeks 41–51 targeted more neutralization-resistant HIV-1 isolates. These results indicate that the SHIV AD₈ macaque model represents a potentially valuable experimental system for investigating B-cell maturation and the induction of cross-reactive NAbs directed against multiple HIV-1 strains.
It is widely believed that the induction of a broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) response will be a critical component of a successful vaccine against HIV. A significant fraction of HIV-infected ...individuals mount bNAb responses, providing support for the notion that such responses could be elicited through vaccination. Infection of macaques with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) or SIV/HIV chimeric virus (SHIV) has been widely used to model aspects of HIV infection, but to date, only limited bNAb responses have been described. Here, we screened plasma from 14 R5-tropic SHIV-infected macaques for broadly neutralizing activity and identified a macaque with highly potent cross-clade plasma NAb response. Longitudinal studies showed that the development of broad and autologous NAb responses occurred coincidentally in this animal. Serum-mapping studies, using pseudovirus point mutants and antigen adsorption assays, indicated that the plasma bNAbs are specific for epitopes that include carbohydrates and are critically dependent on the glycan at position 332 of Env gp120. The results described herein provide insight into the development and evolution of a broad response, suggest that certain bNAb specificities may be more rapidly induced by immunization than others, and provide a potential model for the facile study of the development of bNAb responses.
We and others have reported that the vast majority of virus-producing CD4⁺ T cells during the acute infection of rhesus macaques with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) or CXCR4 (X4)-using ...simian/human immunodeficiency viruses (SHIVs) exhibited a nonactivated phenotype. These findings have been extended to show that resting CD4⁺ T lymphocytes collected from SIV- or X4-SHIV-infected animals during the first 10 days of infection continue to release virus ex vivo. Furthermore, we observed high frequencies of integrated viral DNA (up to 5.1 x 10⁴ DNA copies per 10⁵ cells) in circulating resting CD4⁺ T cells during the first 10 days of the infection. Integration of SIV DNA was detected only in memory CD4⁺ T cells and SHIVs preferentially integrated into resting naïve CD4⁺ T cells. Taken together, these results show that during the acute infection large numbers of resting CD4⁺ T cells carry integrated nonhuman primate lentiviral DNA and are the major source of progeny virions irrespective of coreceptor usage. Prompt and sustained interventions are therefore required to block the rapid systemic dissemination of virus and prevent an otherwise fatal clinical outcome.
Passive transfer of high-titered antiviral neutralizing IgG, known to confer sterilizing immunity in pig-tailed monkeys, has been used to determine how soon after virus exposure neutralizing ...antibodies (NAbs) must be present to block a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)/HIV chimeric virus infection. Sterilizing protection was achieved in three of four macaques receiving neutralizing IgG 6 h after intravenous SIV/HIV chimeric virus inoculation as monitored by PCR analyses of and attempted virus isolations from plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cell, and lymph node specimens. In the fourth animal, the production of progeny virus was suppressed for >4 weeks. A delay in transferring NAbs until 24 h after virus challenge resulted in infection in two of two monkeys. These results suggest that even if a vaccine capable of eliciting broadly reactive NAbs against primary HIV-1 were at hand, the Abs generated must remain at, or rapidly achieve, high levels within a relatively short period after exposure to virus to prevent the establishment of a primate lentivirus infection.
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