SOSIP trimer-specific antibodies isolated from a SHIV-infected monkey with versus without a pre-blocking step with gp41.

BG505 SOSIP.664 (hereafter referred to as SOSIP), a stabilized trimeric mimic of the HIV-1 envelope spike resembling the native viral spike, is a useful tool for isolating anti-HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies. We screened long-term SHIV-AD8 infected rhesus monkeys for potency and breadth of serum neutralizing activity against autologous and heterologous viruses: SHIV-AD8, HIV-1 YU2, HIV-1 JR-CSF, and HIV-1 NL4-3. Monkey rh2436 neutralized all viruses tested and showed strong reactivity to the SOSIP trimer, suggesting this was a promising candidate for attempts at monoclonal antibody (mAb) isolation. Monoclonal antibodies were isolated by performing single B-cell sorts from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) by FACS using the SOSIP trimer as a probe. An initial round of sorted cells revealed the majority of isolated mAbs were directed to the gp41 external domain portion of the SOSIP trimer and were mostly non-neutralizing against tested isolates. A second sort was performed, introducing a gp41 blocking step prior to PBMC staining and FACS sorting. These isolated mAbs bound SOSIP trimer but were no longer directed to the gp41 external domain portion. A significantly higher proportion of mAbs with neutralizing activity were obtained with this strategy. Our data show this pre-blocking step with gp41 greatly increases the yield of non-gp41 reactive, SOSIP- specific mAbs and increases the likelihood of isolating mAbs with neutralizing activity. Importance Recent advancements in the field have focused on the isolation and use of broadly neutralizing antibodies for both prophylaxis and therapy. Finding a useful probe to isolate broad potent neutralizing antibodies while avoiding non-neutralizing antibodies is important. The SOSIP trimer has been shown to be a great tool for this purpose because it binds known broadly neutralizing antibodies. However, the SOSIP trimer can isolate non-neutralizing antibodies as well, including gp41-specific mAbs. Introducing a pre-blocking step with gp41 recombinant protein decreased the percent of gp41-specific antibodies isolated with SOSIP probe, as well as increased the number of neutralizing antibodies isolated. This method could be used as a tool to increase the chances of isolating neutralizing antibodies.