Herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) causes genital herpes and increases the risk of transmission and infection with HIV. Thus a vaccine for HSV-2 would not only reduce the rate of genital herpes, but also might reduce spread of HIV. Several HSV-2 vaccines have been tested in humans for prevention or reduction of genital herpes disease, but none has been licensed for use in humans. We studied blood from persons who received the RV144 HIV vaccine, which contained a recombinant HIV glycoprotein 120 (gp120) construct fused to a small portion of herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) glycoprotein D (gD). The first 40 amino acids of gp120 were replaced by the signal sequence and the first 27 amino acids of the mature form of gD. This region of gD contains most of the binding site for HVEM, an HSV receptor important for virus infection of epithelial cells and lymphocytes. RV144 induced antibodies to HIV that were partially protective against infection as well as antibodies to HSV. In collaboration with investigators at Duke University, we derived monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) from peripheral blood B cells of recipients of the RV144 HIV vaccine and showed that these antibodies neutralized HSV1 infection in cells expressing HVEM, but not the other major virus receptor- nectin-1. The MAbs mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), and mice that received the MAbs and then challenged by corneal inoculation with HSV-1 had reduced eye disease, shedding, and latent infection. To our knowledge this is the first description of MAbs derived from human recipients of a vaccine that specifically target the HVEM binding site of gD. In summary, we found that monoclonal antibodies derived from humans vaccinated with the HVEM binding domain of HSV-1 gD (a) neutralized HSV-1 infection in a cell receptor-specific manner, (b) mediated ADCC, and (c) reduced ocular disease in virus-infected mice.
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