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New antibody recognizes multiple strains of influenza
Whittle JR. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2011;doi:10.1073/pnas.1111497108.
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Researchers have discovered a human monoclonal antibody — dubbed CH65 — that recognizes many different influenza strains. This may have implications for a longer-lasting vaccine against the influenza virus, according to new data from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“We describe a human monoclonal antibody, CH65, obtained by isolating rearranged heavy- and light-chain genes from sorted single plasma cells, coming from a subject immunized with the 2007 trivalent influenza vaccine,” Stephen C. Harrison, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and colleagues wrote in the study. “The crystal structure of a complex of the hemagglutinin (HA) from H1N1 strain A/Solomon Islands/3/2006 with the Fab of CH65 shows that the tip of the CH65 heavy-chain complementarily determining region 3 (CDR3) inserts into the receptor binding pocket on HA1, mimicking in many respects the interaction of the physiological receptor, sialic acid.”
The researchers used technology that allowed timely scanning of molecules in immune cells to evaluate how the immune system determines which antibodies to produce. “What this allows us to do is get a snapshot of the different kinds of antibodies being made in a person in response to a vaccine,” Harrison said in a press release.
A new antibody that recognized multiple strains of the influenza virus was identified (human monoclonal antibody, CH65).
Of 36 H1N1 strains tested for neutralization against isolates from the past 30 years, CH65 neutralized infectivity of all but six, including the 2009 H1N1 pandemic strain, according to the study.
“Broad neutralization of influenza virus can be achieved by antibodies with contacts that mimic those of the receptor, and lack of common resistance mutations among the tested strains indicates that CH65 might be a useful template for a therapeutic antibody,” the researchers wrote in the study.
“Our goal is to understand how the immune system selects for antibodies and use that information to get better at making a vaccine that will take you in a direction that favors breadth over specificity,” Harrison said in the release.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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