Elicitation of Robust Tier 2 Neutralizing Antibody Responses in Nonhuman Primates by HIV Envelope Trimer Immunization Using Optimized Approaches

Matthias Pauthner; Colin Havenar-Daughton; Devin Sok; Joseph P Nkolola; Raiza Bastidas; Archana V Boopathy; Diane G Carnathan; Abishek Chandrashekar; Kimberly M Cirelli; Christopher A Cottrell; Alexey M Eroshkin; Javier Guenaga; Kirti Kaushik; Daniel W Kulp; Jinyan Liu; Laura E McCoy; Aaron L Oom; Gabriel Ozorowski; Kai W Post; Shailendra K Sharma; Jon M Steichen; Steven W de Taeye; Talar Tokatlian; Alba Torrents de la Peña; Salvatore T Butera; Celia C LaBranche; David C Montefiori; Guido Silvestri; Ian A Wilson; Darrell J Irvine; Rogier W Sanders; William R Schief; Andrew B Ward; Richard T Wyatt; Dan H Barouch; Shane Crotty; Dennis R Burton

doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2017.05.007

Elicitation of Robust Tier 2 Neutralizing Antibody Responses in Nonhuman Primates by HIV Envelope Trimer Immunization Using Optimized Approaches

Immunity. 2017 Jun 20;46(6):1073-1088.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2017.05.007.

Authors

Matthias Pauthner¹, Colin Havenar-Daughton², Devin Sok³, Joseph P Nkolola⁴, Raiza Bastidas¹, Archana V Boopathy⁵, Diane G Carnathan⁶, Abishek Chandrashekar⁷, Kimberly M Cirelli², Christopher A Cottrell⁸, Alexey M Eroshkin⁹, Javier Guenaga¹, Kirti Kaushik², Daniel W Kulp¹, Jinyan Liu⁴, Laura E McCoy¹⁰, Aaron L Oom¹¹, Gabriel Ozorowski⁸, Kai W Post⁹, Shailendra K Sharma¹, Jon M Steichen¹, Steven W de Taeye¹², Talar Tokatlian¹³, Alba Torrents de la Peña¹², Salvatore T Butera¹⁴, Celia C LaBranche¹⁵, David C Montefiori¹⁵, Guido Silvestri⁶, Ian A Wilson¹⁶, Darrell J Irvine¹⁷, Rogier W Sanders¹⁸, William R Schief¹⁹, Andrew B Ward⁸, Richard T Wyatt¹, Dan H Barouch²⁰, Shane Crotty²¹, Dennis R Burton²²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center and the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
² Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
³ Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center and the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, New York, NY 10004, USA.
⁴ Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
⁵ Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁶ Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA; Emory Vaccine Center, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
⁷ Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
⁸ Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center and the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
⁹ Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Bioinformatics Core, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center and the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Division of Infection & Immunity, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
¹¹ Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
¹² Department of Medical Microbiology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
¹³ Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
¹⁶ Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center and the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
¹⁷ Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA; Departments of Biological Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA; Department of Medical Microbiology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
¹⁹ Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center and the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
²⁰ Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
²¹ Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Electronic address: shane@lji.org.
²² Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center and the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Electronic address: burton@scripps.edu.

Abstract

The development of stabilized recombinant HIV envelope trimers that mimic the virion surface molecule has increased enthusiasm for a neutralizing antibody (nAb)-based HIV vaccine. However, there is limited experience with recombinant trimers as immunogens in nonhuman primates, which are typically used as a model for humans. Here, we tested multiple immunogens and immunization strategies head-to-head to determine their impact on the quantity, quality, and kinetics of autologous tier 2 nAb development. A bilateral, adjuvanted, subcutaneous immunization protocol induced reproducible tier 2 nAb responses after only two immunizations 8 weeks apart, and these were further enhanced by a third immunization with BG505 SOSIP trimer. We identified immunogens that minimized non-neutralizing V3 responses and demonstrated that continuous immunogen delivery could enhance nAb responses. nAb responses were strongly associated with germinal center reactions, as assessed by lymph node fine needle aspiration. This study provides a framework for preclinical and clinical vaccine studies targeting nAb elicitation.

Keywords: BG505; GC B cells; HIV vaccine; NFL; SOSIP; Tfh cells; germinal centers; nonhuman primates; protein design; rhesus macaques.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

AIDS Vaccines / immunology*
Animals
Antibodies, Neutralizing / therapeutic use*
Cells, Cultured
Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte / chemistry
Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte / immunology
Germinal Center / immunology*
Germinal Center / virology
HIV Antibodies / therapeutic use*
HIV Infections / immunology
HIV Infections / therapy*
HIV-1 / immunology*
Humans
Immunization
Injections, Subcutaneous
Primates
Protein Multimerization
env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / chemistry
env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / immunology

Substances

AIDS Vaccines
Antibodies, Neutralizing
Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte
HIV Antibodies
env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding