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Understanding the interplay between HIV-1 diversity, humoral immune responses and viral fitness

Includes bibliographical references.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bandawe, Gama Petulo
Other Authors: Williamson, Carolyn
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Division of Virology 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Bandawe, Gama Petulo
author2 Williamson, Carolyn
author_browse Bandawe, Gama Petulo
Williamson, Carolyn
author_facet Williamson, Carolyn
Bandawe, Gama Petulo
author_sort Bandawe, Gama Petulo
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8689
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:47.627Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Division of Virology
publisherStr Division of Virology
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8689 Understanding the interplay between HIV-1 diversity, humoral immune responses and viral fitness Bandawe, Gama Petulo Williamson, Carolyn Morris, Lynn Includes bibliographical references. HIV-1 antibody dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC) and neutralizing antibody (nAb) responses are both thought to be important responses to elicit through vaccination. This thesis characterises neutralizing response in two cohorts in Africa, and in a detailed study of one individual, elucidates the interplay between ADCC and nAb responses in early infection, and the impact of humoral escape on viral fitness. It remains an open question whether different geographically distinct population groups vary in their neutralization responses to HIV-1. We compared neutralizing antibody responses in two African cohorts and found 35% of the Tanzanians in the HIV Superinfection Study (HISIS) cohort had neutralization breath (neutralized >50% of panel viruses) at two years post infection compared to only 9% in the Centres for AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) cohort. Cumulative viral loads between 3 and 12 months post infection were strongly associated with neutralization breadth (p<0.001), and were higher in the Tanzanian cohort (p=0.046). No association was found between breadth and dual infection, subtype or features of the envelope. One elite neutralizer was identified in the HISIS cohort with responses targeting the CD4 binding site. While neutralizing antibodies are considered central for protection from infection, ADCC activity correlated with reduced risk of HIV-1 acquisition in the RV144 trial. There is limited understanding of the overlapping ADCC and neutralizing antibody functions in early infection. We investigated the kinetics and targets of both responses in one individual from CAPRISA. ADCC responses were detected 4 weeks post infection, with nAbs responses emerging at 7 weeks post infection. We identified five neutralization escape patterns in the V4 region of the envelope by 11 weeks post-infection. Four of these also conferred ADCC escape; however the fifth neutralization escape variant resulted in increased sensitivity to ADCC. This variant was eliminated in vivo by 29 weeks post infection. Finally, we studied the effect of neutralizing and ADCC antibody escape mutations on the virus' ability to mediate fusion, infectivity and replicative fitness. Envelopes bearing immune escape adaptations had lower cell-cell fusion ability compared to the T/F virus. The mutations also resulted in reduced infectivity of infectious molecular clone virus stocks. However, only the largest deletion in the V4 caused reduced growth in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). In conclusion, the study finds that neutralizing antibody responses are influenced by community viral loads. The study defined the first ADCC epitope reported in the V4 region, and describes overlapping targets for ADCC and neutralizing antibodies. Where neutralization escape resulted in increased ADCC sensitivity, this was a dead end escape pathway. Finally we find that early V4 escape from both ADCC and nAb responses had a fitness impact on the virus. We thus demonstrate a mechanism through which ADCC and neutralizing antibodies can synergistically influence viral evolution and potentially produce a protective immune response. 2014-10-21T13:41:06Z 2014-10-21T13:41:06Z 2014 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8689 eng application/pdf Division of Virology Faculty of Health Sciences University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Bandawe, Gama Petulo
Understanding the interplay between HIV-1 diversity, humoral immune responses and viral fitness
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Understanding the interplay between HIV-1 diversity, humoral immune responses and viral fitness
title_full Understanding the interplay between HIV-1 diversity, humoral immune responses and viral fitness
title_fullStr Understanding the interplay between HIV-1 diversity, humoral immune responses and viral fitness
title_full_unstemmed Understanding the interplay between HIV-1 diversity, humoral immune responses and viral fitness
title_short Understanding the interplay between HIV-1 diversity, humoral immune responses and viral fitness
title_sort understanding the interplay between hiv 1 diversity humoral immune responses and viral fitness
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8689
work_keys_str_mv AT bandawegamapetulo understandingtheinterplaybetweenhiv1diversityhumoralimmuneresponsesandviralfitness