| Title | Human Rhinovirus Presenting 4E10 Epitope of HIV-1 MPER Elicits Neutralizing Antibodies in Human ICAM-1 Transgenic Mice. | ||
| Author | Yi, Guohua; Tu, Xiongying; Bharaj, Preeti; Guo, Hua; Zhang, Junli; Shankar, Premlata; Manjunath, N | ||
| Journal | Mol Ther | Publication Year/Month | 2015-Oct |
| PMID | 26061648 | PMCID | PMC4817917 |
| Affiliation + expend | 1.Center of Excellence for Infectious Diseases, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso, Texas, USA. | ||
Attempts at eliciting neutralizing antibodies against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 have generally failed. Computationally designed epitope-scaffold platforms allow transplantation of structural epitopes to scaffold proteins. Human rhinovirus (HRV) allows such engrafting of HIV-1 epitopes on the surface scaffold proteins. However, since HRV infects only humans and great apes, the efficacy of chimeric HRV-based live viral vaccines is difficult to assess in animal models. Here, we used human ICAM-1 transgenic (hICAM-1 Tg) mice that support productive HRV infection to assess the efficacy of chimeric HRV expressing the HIV-1 membrane proximal external region (MPER) epitope, 4E10. Intranasal immunization with chimeric HRV in transgenic mice effectively induced antibodies that recognized 4E10 peptide as well as HIV-1 Env trimer. Importantly, the immunized mouse sera were able to neutralize HIV strains including those belonging to clades B and C. Moreover, intranasal immunization could bypass pre-existing immunity to HRV. Thus, chimeric HRV appears to provide a viable vaccine vehicle for HIV-1 immunization in humans.