A protective and broadly binding antibody class engages the influenza virus hemagglutinin head at its stem interface.

ABSTRACT: Influenza infection and vaccination impart strain-specific immunity that protects against neither seasonal antigenic variants nor the next pandemic. However, antibodies directed to conserved sites can confer broad protection. Here we identify and characterize a class of human antibodies that engage a previously undescribed, conserved epitope on the influenza hemagglutinin (HA) protein. Prototype antibody S8V1-157 binds at the normally occluded interface between the HA head and stem. Antibodies to this HA head-stem interface epitope are non-neutralizing in vitro but protect against lethal influenza infection in mice. Antibody isotypes that direct clearance of infected cells enhance this protection. Head-stem interface antibodies bind to most influenza A serotypes and seasonal human v

SUBMITTER: Simmons HC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10760138 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature