Nat commun: artificial protein can stimulate the production of anti HIV antibody

February 28, 2019 / BIOON / - there are a lot of carbohydrates on the surface of HIV-1 to camouflage the protein env on the surface of HIV-1, so that HIV-1 can avoid the humoral immunity of human body However, most HIV-1 isolates will produce "sugar holes" due to natural sequence mutations, which may expose the protein surface under them to the immune system To test this conjecture, researchers from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Pennsylvania State University and other units recently designed some protein epitopes through computers, which can activate rabbits to produce antibodies against HIV-1 Relevant research results were published in nature communications on February 27, 2019, entitled "rationally designed carbohydrate occluded" epitopes elicit HIV-1 Env-specific antibodies”。 Photo source: nature communications in this study, these new proteins designed by the researchers can simulate the carbohydrate blocked neutralization epitope (cone) in Env through epitope transplantation In these new designed epitopes, the target region is presented on a carrier protein scaffold with conservation structure The scaffold showed four kinds of cones, and the researchers then tested its structure and immunogenicity The crystal structures of the two designed proteins accurately reflect the computer model, and accurately simulate the conformation of natural cones Through in vivo experiments, the researchers found that env binding activity appeared in the sera of rabbits immunized with several cone immunogens, indicating that these new immunogens can successfully induce the immune system to produce antibodies that can bind to HIV-1 In general, in this study, the design of the researchers determined the necessary structural elements of the protective antibody target, and the ability to design immunogens by highly simulating viral proteins also made it possible to explore further vaccine development templates The researchers say they are happy that this approach can generate an immune response to HIV in the body, and they need more work to enhance the neutralization and other properties of these antibodies before they can be used clinically; they believe that this approach will help create personalized vaccines for a range of diseases around the world in the future Reference: Nikolay v dokholyan et al Rationally designed carbohydrate occupied epicites elite HIV-1 env specific antibodies Nature communications DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08876-w