Antiviral Antibodies and Coronaviruses
(From Potential Antiviral Agents for Coronaviruses: Compounds, Herbal Products, and Drug Targets)
- Mutations in virus-derived CD8 T-cell epitopes may abolish cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) recognition (Butler et al., 2007).
- The mutations may block virus clearance in coronavirus-infected hosts.
- These “CTL escape variant viruses” may lead to disease progression and elevated disease severity.
- Antiviral antibody-mediated inhibition of virus replication and subsequent virus clearance may help prevent the CTL escape.
- B-cell-deficient mice may shelter the CTL escape and would not eliminate infectious viruses effectively (Butler et al., 2007).
- Antiviral antibodies are crucial for the protection from the CTL escape variant viruses.
Antiviral Immunity and Coronavirus Vaccine Vectors
(From Potential Antiviral Agents for Coronaviruses: Compounds, Herbal Products, and Drug Targets)
- Effective vaccination against infectious viruses relies on specific antigens targeting dendritic cells (DCs).
- Vaccine vectors may help with the delivery of antigens to antigen-presenting cells (APCs) (Cervantes-Barragan et al., 2010).
- Vaccine vectors derived from attenuated murine coronavirus genomes were produced to express epitopes.
- These epitopes can be from the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus glycoprotein or human Melan-A.
- They can be combined with the immunostimulatory cytokine granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF).
- These vectors may selectively target DCs and lead to vector-mediated antigen expression and the maturation of DCs.
- Single application of low vector doses may cause strong and long-term cytotoxic T-cell responses.
- Such responses may enable protective antiviral and antitumor immune functions.
- The DCs transduced with Melan-A-recombinant virus may activate tumor-specific CD8(+) T cells (Cervantes-Barragan et al., 2010).
- Such a vaccine platform can be used to transport antigens and immunostimulatory cytokines to DCs to enable protective immunity.
References:
Butler, N. S., Dandekar, A. A., & Perlman, S. (2007). Antiviral antibodies are necessary to prevent cytotoxic T-lymphocyte escape in mice infected with a coronavirus. Journal of Virology, 81(24), 13291–13298. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.01580-07
Cervantes-Barragan, L., Züst, R., Maier, R., Sierro, S., Janda, J., Levy, F., Speiser, D., Romero, P., Rohrlich, P.-S., Ludewig, B., & Thiel, V. (2010). Dendritic cell-specific antigen delivery by coronavirus vaccine vectors induces long-lasting protective antiviral and antitumor immunity. MBio, 1(4). https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00171-10
