Design and structure of two HIV-1 clade C SOSIP.664 trimers that increase the arsenal of native-like Env immunogens

Jean-Philippe Julien, Jeong Hyun Lee, Gabriel Ozorowski, Yuanzi Hua, Alba Torrents de la Peña, Steven W. de Taeye, Travis Nieusma, Albert Cupo, Anila Yasmeen, Michael Golabek, Pavel Pugach, P. J. Klasse, John P. Moore, Rogier W. Sanders, Andrew B. Ward, Ian A. Wilson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

105 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A key challenge in the quest toward an HIV-1 vaccine is design of immunogens that can generate a broadly neutralizing antibody (bnAb) response against the enormous sequence diversity of the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env). We previously demonstrated that a recombinant, soluble, fully cleaved SOSIP.664 trimer based on the clade A BG505 sequence is a faithful antigenic and structural mimic of the native trimer in its prefusion conformation. Here, we sought clade C native-like trimers with comparable properties. We identified DU422 and ZM197M SOSIP.664 trimers as being appropriately thermostable (Tm of 63.4 °C and 62.7 °C, respectively) and predominantly native-like, as determined by negative-stain electron microscopy (EM). Size exclusion chromatography, ELISA, and surface plasmon resonance further showed that these trimers properly display epitopes for all of the major bnAb classes, including quaternary-dependent, trimer-apex (e.g., PGT145) and gp120/gp41 interface (e.g., PGT151) epitopes. A cryo-EM reconstruction of the ZM197M SOSIP.664 trimer complexed with VRC01 Fab against the CD4 binding site at subnanometer resolution revealed a striking overall similarity to its BG505 counterpart with expected local conformational differences in the gp120 V1, V2, and V4 loops. These stable clade C trimers contribute additional diversity to the pool of native-like Env immunogens as key components of strategies to induce bnAbs to HIV-1
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)11947-11952
JournalPROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume112
Issue number38
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

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