Bispecific antibodies promote natural killer cell-mediated elimination of HIV-1 reservoir cells
Date:
03/15/2024
Topics:
Citation:
Board NL, Yuan Z, Wu F, Moskovljevic M, Ravi M, Sengupta S, Mun SS, Simonetti FR, Lai J, Tebas P, Lynn K, Hoh R, Deeks SG, Siliciano JD, Montaner LJ, Siliciano RF. Bispecific antibodies promote natural killer cell-mediated elimination of HIV-1 reservoir cells. Nat Immunol. 2024 Mar;25(3):462-470. doi: 10.1038/s41590-023-01741-5. Epub 2024 Jan 26. PMID: 38278966; PMCID: PMC10907297.
Abstract
The persistence of CD4+ T cells carrying latent human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) proviruses is the main barrier to a cure. New therapeutics to enhance HIV-1-specific immune responses and clear infected cells will probably be necessary to achieve reduction of the latent reservoir. In the present study, we report two single-chain diabodies (scDbs) that target the HIV-1 envelope protein (Env) and the human type III Fcγ receptor (CD16). We show that the scDbs promoted robust and HIV-1-specific natural killer (NK) cell activation and NK cell-mediated lysis of infected cells. Cocultures of CD4+ T cells from people with HIV-1 on antiretroviral therapy (ART) with autologous NK cells and the scDbs resulted in marked elimination of reservoir cells that was dependent on latency reversal. Treatment of human interleukin-15 transgenic NSG mice with one of the scDbs after ART initiation enhanced NK cell activity and reduced reservoir size. Thus, HIV-1-specific scDbs merit further evaluation as potential therapeutics for clearance of the latent reservoir.