Deciphering Fc-mediated Antiviral Antibody Functions in Animal Models.

Longstanding discordances and enigmas persist as to the specificities and other properties of antibodies (Abs) most effective in preventing or limiting many viral infections in mammals; in turn, failure to decipher key complexities has added to headwinds for both Ab-based therapeutic approaches and rational vaccine design. More recently, experimental approaches have emerged-and continue to emerge-for discerning the functional role of Ab structure, especially the Fc portion of antibody, in combating viral infections . A wide range of measures of antibody activity, from neutralization to antibody-dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC)-each of these terms representing only an operational notion defined by the particulars of a given assay-are poised for assignment of both relevance and reliability in forecasting outcomes of infection.

Cell-targeting antibodies in immunity to Ebola.

As the 2014-15 Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa evolved from emergency to lesson, developers of both vaccines and therapeutic antibodies were left with the puzzlement of what kinds of anti-Ebola antibodies are predictably desirable in treating the afflicted, and what antibodies might account for the specific and lasting protection elicited by the more effective vaccines. The facile answer in virology is that neutralizing antibody (NAb) is desired and required. However, with Ebola and other filoviruses (as with many prior viral examples), there are multiple discordances in which neutralizing antibodies fail to protect animals, and others in which antibody-mediated protection is observed in the absence of measured virus neutralization.

Protective antiviral antibodies that lack neutralizing activity: precedents and evolution of concepts.

Antibody-mediated resistance to viral disease is often attributed solely to neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) despite a body of evidence -- more than 30 years in the making -- to show that other populations of antibodies (protective non-neutralizing antibodies, PnNAbs) can also contribute and are sometimes pivotal in host resistance to viruses. Recently, interest in varieties of PnNAbs has been restored and elevated by an HIV vaccine trial in which virus-specific nNAbs have been highlighted as a positive correlate of immunity. Here, I briefly review some of the historical precedents with many viruses other than HIV, along with the emergence of data over the course of some four decades, pointing emphatically to the importance of subsets of antiviral antibodies that operate by mechanisms other than classical virus neutralization.

Genomic differences between guinea pig lethal and nonlethal Marburg virus variants.

The complete genome sequences of 2 closely related plaque-derived variants of Marburg virus (MARV) species Lake Victoria marburgvirus, strain Musoke, indicate only a few regions of the RNA genome as underlying the differences between the 2 viruses. One variant is >90% lethal for guinea pigs and the other much less virulent, when guinea pigs are challenged with 1000 pfu of virus. Only 4 mutations that result in amino acid changes were identified, 1 in viral matrix protein VP40 and 3 in L, the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.

How Ebola and Marburg viruses battle the immune system.

The filoviruses Ebola and Marburg have emerged in the past decade from relative obscurity to serve now as archetypes for some of the more intriguing and daunting challenges posed by such agents. Public imagination is captured by deadly outbreaks of these viruses and reinforced by the specter of bioterrorism. As research on these agents has accelerated, it has been found increasingly that filoviruses use a combination of familiar and apparently new ways to baffle and battle the immune system.