Veterinary Research Institute, Brno, Czech Republic; Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic; Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Veterinary Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic.
Veterinary Research Institute, Brno, Czech Republic; Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
Cell Rep. 2023 Sep 26;42(9):113149. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113149. Epub 2023 Sep 19.
Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is a flavivirus that causes human neuroinfections and represents a growing health problem. The human monoclonal antibody T025 targets envelope protein domain III (EDIII) of TBEV and related tick-borne flaviviruses, potently neutralizing TBEV in vitro and in preclinical models, representing a promising candidate for clinical development. We demonstrate that TBEV escape in the presence of T025 or T028 (another EDIII-targeting human monoclonal antibody) results in virus variants of reduced pathogenicity, characterized by distinct sets of amino acid changes in EDII and EDIII that are jointly needed to confer resistance. EDIII substitution K311N impairs formation of a salt bridge critical for T025-epitope interaction. EDII substitution E230K is not on the T025 epitope but likely induces quaternary rearrangements of the virus surface because of repulsion of positively charged residues on the adjacent EDI. A combination of T025 and T028 prevents virus escape and improves neutralization.
蜱传脑炎病毒(TBEV)是一种黄病毒,可引起人类神经感染,是一个日益严重的健康问题。人类单克隆抗体 T025 靶向 TBEV 及相关蜱传黄病毒的包膜蛋白结构域 III(EDIII),在体外和临床前模型中具有强大的中和 TBEV 的作用,是一种很有前途的临床开发候选药物。我们证明,TBEV 在 T025 或 T028(另一种靶向 EDIII 的人类单克隆抗体)存在的情况下发生逃逸,会导致病毒毒力降低的变异株,其特征是在 EDII 和 EDIII 中存在不同的氨基酸变化组合,这些变化共同赋予了病毒对 T025 的耐药性。EDIII 取代 K311N 会破坏对 T025 表位相互作用至关重要的盐桥形成。EDII 取代 E230K 不在 T025 表位上,但由于相邻 EDI 上带正电荷的残基的排斥,可能会诱导病毒表面的四级重排。T025 和 T028 的联合使用可以防止病毒逃逸并提高中和效果。