Antibody Neutralization of HIV-1 Crossing the Blood-Brain Barrier

Valérie Lorin (1, 2) , Anne Danckaert (3) , Françoise Porrot (4) , Olivier Schwartz (4) , Philippe Afonso (5) , Hugo Mouquet (1)

1 Immunologie humorale - Humoral Immunology
2 UPCité - Université Paris Cité
3 UTechS PBI - BioImagerie Photonique – Photonic BioImaging
4 CNRS-UMR3569 - Virus et Immunité - Virus and immunity
5 EPVO (UMR_3569 / U-Pasteur_3) - Epidémiologie et Physiopathologie des Virus Oncogènes / Oncogenic Virus Epidemiology and Pathophysiology

HIV-1 can cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to penetrate the brain and infect target cells, causing neurocognitive disorders as a result of neuroinflammation and brain damage. The HIV-1 envelope spike gp160 is partially required for viral transcytosis across the BBB endothelium. But do antibodies developing in infected individuals and targeting the HIV-1 gp160 glycoproteins block HIV-1 transcytosis through the BBB? We addressed this issue and discovered that anti-gp160 antibodies do not block HIV-1 transport; instead, free viruses and those in complex with antibodies can transit across BBB endothelial cells. Importantly, we found that only neutralizing antibodies could inhibit posttranscytosis viral infectivity, highlighting their ability to protect susceptible brain cells from HIV-1 infection.

Keywords: HIV-1; antibodies; blood brain barrier; neutralization; transcytosis

Domains: Immunology

Valérie Lorin, Anne Danckaert, Françoise Porrot, Olivier Schwartz, Philippe Afonso, et al.. Antibody Neutralization of HIV-1 Crossing the Blood-Brain Barrier. mBio, 2020, 11 (5), pp.e02424-20. ⟨10.1128/mBio.02424-20⟩. ⟨pasteur-03246667⟩