{"id":1331,"date":"2017-07-03T08:10:36","date_gmt":"2017-07-03T08:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.virologyhighlights.com\/?p=1331"},"modified":"2018-05-25T08:33:23","modified_gmt":"2018-05-25T08:33:23","slug":"antibody-dependent-enhancement-of-zika-virus-its-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/antibody-dependent-enhancement-of-zika-virus-its-complicated\/","title":{"rendered":"Antibody Dependent Enhancement of Zika Virus: It\u2019s Complicated"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read the full article on ScienceDirect.<\/a><\/p>\n

Antibodies elicited by other flaviviruses enhance Zika virus infection in vitro<\/em>, but enhancement is not strictly correlated with binding affinity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Text by Scott Hensley and Elinor Willis
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Zika viruses are circulating in parts of the world that are endemic for other flaviviruses. Recent studies suggest that cross-reactive antibodies elicited by other flaviviruses can enhance Zika virus replication in vitro<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s possible that antibodies targeting different regions of Zika virus might have different enhancing potentials.\u00a0 To address this, we measured Zika virus binding and enhancing ability of a relatively large number of murine monoclonal antibodies elicited by exposure to Dengue virus or West Nile virus.<\/p>\n

So, how did we get interested in studying Zika viruses?\u00a0 Our lab studies how prior influenza virus infections shape antibody responses to antigenically distinct influenza virus strains. \u00a0We have found that the specificity of antibodies elicited by influenza viruses is affected by prior influenza virus exposures.\u00a0 Subtle differences in influenza virus antibody specificity can have profound consequences since influenza viruses are constantly acquiring mutations that abrogate the binding of some antibodies, but not others. There are many parallels between influenza viruses and flaviviruses with regards to pre-existing immunity.\u00a0 In the case of flaviviruses, antibodies elicited during a prior infection can bind to a second flavivirus and enhance viral uptake and immune recognition.<\/p>\n

When we initiated our study, it was unknown whether antibodies elicited by other flaviviruses bound to Zika virus and enhanced viral replication.\u00a0 Over the course of our studies, several groups published manuscripts showing that this indeed occurs.\u00a0 So, we were confronted with a dilemma: do we abandon our studies because we were \u2018scooped\u2019 or was there anything new and interesting in our dataset?\u00a0 Unlike published studies, we tested the enhancing potential of a large number of monoclonal antibodies.\u00a0 This allowed us to address whether specificity affects antibody enhancing potential.\u00a0 As some flavivirus gurus might have predicted, we found that the enhancing phenotype was very complicated. Different types of antibodies in our panel could enhance Zika virus infection and enhancement was not strictly correlated with relative binding affinity.<\/p>\n

It is still not clear how our results relate to what is actually happening in vivo<\/em>.\u00a0 The situation in vivo<\/em> is much more complicated since enhancement is likely affected by increases in viral replication as well as engagement of innate immune cells.\u00a0 Recent studies indicate that antibodies against Dengue virus and West Nile virus can enhance Zika virus replication and pathogenesis in a mouse model.\u00a0 However, other human studies suggest that antibodies elicited by Dengue viruses protect against Zika virus infection.\u00a0 It will be interesting to tease out the specificities of antibodies involved in these different studies.<\/p>\n

\"virology<\/p>\n

Figure legend<\/h3>\n

(A) Monoclonal antibodies elicited by Dengue (green) or West Nile (red) viruses enhance Zika virus infection of K562 cells, a human erythroleukemic cell line that expresses Fc receptors. (B) Enhancement potential does not strictly correlate with relative binding, as measured by ELISA.<\/p>\n

Introducing the authors<\/h3>\n

\"Authors\"<\/p>\n

Elinor Willis (left) and Scott E. Hensley work at the Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

About the research<\/h3>\n

Characterization of Zika virus binding and enhancement potential of a large panel of flavivirus murine monoclonal antibodies<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Elinor Willis, Scott E. Hensley<\/p>\n

Virology<\/em>, Volume 508, August 2017, Pages 1\u20136<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read the full article on ScienceDirect. Antibodies elicited by other flaviviruses enhance Zika virus infection in vitro, but enhancement is not strictly correlated with binding affinity Text by Scott Hensley and Elinor Willis Zika viruses are circulating in parts of the world that are endemic for other flaviviruses. Recent studies suggest that cross-reactive antibodies elicited Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,632,630],"tags":[1116,1117,1114,300,1113,1115,674,672],"class_list":["post-1331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlighted-article","category-immunity-to-viruses","category-virus-host-biology","tag-antibody","tag-antibody-responses","tag-dengue","tag-flavivirus","tag-in-vivo","tag-west-nile","tag-zika","tag-zikv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1341,"href":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions\/1341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elsevierblogs.com\/virology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}