Monoclonal antibody against EV71 3Dpol inhibits the polymerase activity of RdRp and virus replication.

BACKGROUND: Enterovirus A 71 (EV71) is a neurotropic virus that may lead to acute flaccid paralysis, encephalitis, cardiopulmonary failure or even death. No vaccine and defensive drug controlling EV71 is currently available, novel and efficient antiviral drug or vaccine is therefore urgently needed. 3Dpol (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp)) has been an important target for anti-EV71 drug development. METHODS: A panel of monoclonal IgG antibodies (mAbs) against EV71 3Dpol were generated by traditional cell fusion methods. And the antibody affinity and specificity to EV71 3Dpol were evaluated by Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), Indirect Fluorescent Assay (IFA) and Western blotting. Antiviral activities of these antibodies were also determined in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: Two mAbs towards EV71 3Dpol were able to effectively suppress EV71 replication in Vero-1008 cell when intracellarly delivered. And they also dampened the RNA polymerase activity of 3Dpol in vitro. More importantly, these mAbs provided partial protection in EV71-challenged neonatal murine challenge model. CONCLUSIONS: These results showed that two of mAbs against EV71 3Dpol inhibited EV71 replication and could be utilized as promising therapeutic drug candidate.

Improved immune response against HIV-1 Env antigen by enhancing EEV production via a K151E mutation in the A34R gene of replication-competent vaccinia virus Tiantan.

The development of an effective HIV-1 vaccine is still a global priority. In recent years, vaccinia virus (VV) has been widely used as an HIV-1 vaccine vector, but its immune efficacy against HIV-1 antigens needs to be optimized. The extracellular enveloped virus (EEV) of VV is capable of faster entry, earlier release, and long-range dissemination. We hypothesized that an improvement in EEV formation by the manipulation of VV genes involved in the EEV release would consequently cause an improved expression of the VV carrying HIV-1 Env antigen and a subsequent enhanced immune response. To this end, an A34R K151E mutant (rVTT-A34Rmut) from VV Tiantan strain (VTT) with robustly increased EEV release was selected to serve as an optimized vaccine vector. The results were consistent with our hypothesis: the A34R mutant-based HIV-1 vaccine candidate rVTT-A34Rmut-Env produced more HIV-1 Env antigen in vitro and in vivo, and thus led to an improved HIV-1 Env-specific T cell immune response, binding antibody, and even the neutralizing antibody response in mice without increased virulence. Meanwhile, the application of the A34R mutation on another VV-based HIV-1 vaccine candidate, VTKgpe, also exhibited a similar immune enhancement effect with no enhanced virulence. The results in this study suggested that rVTT-A34Rmut is a potentially improved vaccine vector candidate for human application. In addition, the improvement of the EEV formation via the A34R gene mutation may also be potent in other poxvirus vector-based vaccines against HIV-1 or other pathogens and even cancer in the future.