Essential role for virus-neutralizing antibodies in sterilizing immunity against Friend retrovirus infection.
The current experiments use the Friend retrovirus model to demonstrate that vaccine-primed B cells are essential for sterilizing immunity, and the results indicate that the requisite function of these cells is the production of virus-neutralizing antibodies rather than priming or reactivation of T cells. B cell-deficient mice were poorly protected by vaccination, but adoptive transfer experiments showed that the T cells from B cell-deficient mice were primed as well as those from wild-type mice. Furthermore, passive transfer of virus-neutralizing antibodies completely compensated for B cell deficiency. The presence of virus-neutralizing antibodies at the time of infection was crucial for vaccine efficacy. Interestingly, virus-neutralizing antibodies worked synergistically with vaccine-primed T cells to provide a level of protection many orders of magnitude greater than either antibodies or immune T cells alone. Nonneutralizing antibodies also contributed to protection and acted cooperatively with neutralizing antibodies to reduce infection levels. These results emphasize the importance of inducing both T cell responses and virus-neutralizing antibody responses for effective retroviral vaccine protection.
Messer
Ronald J
RJ
Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, MT 59840, USA.
Dittmer
Ulf
U
Peterson
Karin E
KE
Hasenkrug
Kim J
KJ
D019264:Adoptive Transfer; D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005622:Friend murine leukemia virus / Q000276:immunology* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D007942:Leukemia, Experimental / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000494:pharmacology
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D014765:Viral Vaccines