Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) vaccine immunogens capable of inducing broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) remain obscure. HIV-1 evades immune responses through enormous diversity and hides its conserved vulnerable epitopes on the envelope glycoprotein (Env) by displaying an extensive immunodominant glycan shield. In elite HIV-1 viremic controllers, glycan-dependent bNAbs targeting conserved Env epitopes have been isolated and are utilized as vaccine design templates. However, immunological tolerance mechanisms limit the development of these antibodies in the general population. The well characterized bNAbs monoclonal variants frequently exhibit extensive levels of somatic hypermutation, a long third heavy chain complementary determining region, or a short third light chain complementarity determining region, and some exhibit poly-reactivity to autoantigens. This review elaborates on the obstacles to engaging and manipulating the Env glycoprotein as an effective immunogen and describes an alternative reverse vaccinology approach to develop a novel category of bNAb-epitope-derived non-cognate immunogens for HIV-1 vaccine design.

Department of Immunology Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Palacky University Olomouc Hněvotínská 3 779 00 Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Immunology University Hospital Olomouc Zdravotníků 248 7 77900 Olomouc Czech Republic

Laboratory of Ligand Engineering Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences BIOCEV Research Center Průmyslová 595 252 50 Vestec Czech Republic

Citace poskytuje Crossref.org