HERPES!
Herpes
is nothing new to society and has been a constant nuisance for many years. But
a recent article published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences claims that they have engineered a mutant antibody that is able to
effectively neutralize HSV and drug resistant HSV…in mice. Granted not the best news in the world but
hey it’s a start!
Before
that, a little bit more about the Herpes virus. The Herpes virus can be broken
up into two types, HSV-1 which normally causes oral sores and HSV-2, which
usually affects the genital region.
Herpes is an enveloped, double strand DNA virus, that is particularly
good at causing long-term infection, or latent infections. Once it enters the
body it usually persists for the remainder of ones lifetime, with the
possibility of the infection becoming active from time to time. Studies show
that usually a very minimal amount of people, with a functioning immune system,
reactivate the virus, than those who are immunocomprised.
Various
antiviral drugs have been developed and have been shown to decrease virus
reactivity, such as Acyclovir. However, as attributed to many viruses, they
become drug resistant. This drug resistance is particularly seen in individuals
with compromised immune systems, and a better treatment for them is continually
being researched. Thus we arrive at what the researchers did!
Although
still in its early trials, researchers have engineered an antibody known
as mAb hu2c. The antibody works by
negating the mechanism through which HSV is able to spread from cell to cell.
This is a huge step in defeating the virus, being that HSV is able to
successfully avoid the immune system through the cell-to-cell spread mechanism.
A quick summary of this mechanism: most viruses infect target cells by
releasing virions that ultimately infect target cells. In order for this to
occur the virus has to face the extracellular environment and in doing so triggers an immune response. Cell-to-cell spread is a mechanism
in which a virus can infect other surrounding cells without ever having to face
the extracellular environment, and thus can essentially be “hidden” from our
immune system. HSV’s ability to cause infection from cell to cell is mediated
by viral glycoproteins.
The
result of the affinity and neutralization capacity of the antibody was
significant. The researchers injected the mAb hu2c antibody into HSV infected
mice, and measured affinity to the glycoprotein and the neutralization
ability. The researchers have shown that the
epitope, glycoprotein-binding site, on the viral protein has a high affinity
for the binding of the antibody, mAb hu2c. With a high affinity for binding to the glycoprotein, as
well as showing successful neutralization and aboration of cell-to-cell spread, this verified that the murine (mouse) based antibody could be a framework for engineering
a similar human antibody! And guess what, they did it!
The
article reports that researchers engineered a human form of the mouse antibody mAb
hu2c. This new human antibody has also been tested in human cells in vitro and
in vivo. The results were incredible; the human form of the antibody showed,
like its murine counterpart, high affinity to the glycoprotein epitope as well
as high neutralizing capacity. Furthermore the antibody even showed that it was
effective in preventing the mice from HSV onset. The biggest result was the
ability for the antibody to successively neutralize known drug resilient HSV
virus strains. THIS IS HUGE!
Viruses
becoming drug resistant are one of the main issues that drug developers face.
The ability for this antibody to target drug resistant HSV as well as
preventing HSV infection is a major stepping-stone in developing not only a
successful treatment for HSV resistant individuals but also the possibility of
creating a vaccine that can prevent the virus from the beginning. Furthermore, certain drugs used to treat HSV, such as DNA polymerase inhibitors, drugs that
prevent the genomic replication of the virus, are usually toxic to the
individual. As part of the researchers experiment, the human mAb hu2c antibody
showed no major side effects, which furthers the importance of clinical trials
and further data into validating these findings!
Primary Article:
Adalbert Krawczyk, Michaela A. E.
Arndt, Ludger Grosse-Hovest, Wilko Weichert, Bernd
Giebel, Ulf Dittmer,
Hartmut Hengel, Dirk Jäger, Karl E. Schneweis, Anna M. Eis-Hübinger,
Michael
Roggendorf, and Jürgen Krauss
Overcoming
drug-resistant herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection by a humanized
antibody
PNAS 2013 110: 6760-6765.
Secondary Article:
Remeijer L, Osterhaus A, Verjans G.
Human Herpes Simplex Virus
Keratitis: The Pathogenesis Revisited
.Ocul Immunol Inflamm. 2004 Dec;12(4):255-85.
Quentin Sattentau
Avoiding the void: cell-to-cell
spread of human viruses
Nature Reviews Microbiology 6, (November 2008). 815-826.
Herpes simplex virus resistance
to antiviral drugs.
Journal of Clinical Virology. (2003). 29-37.
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