A naturally arising broad and potent CD4-binding site antibody with low somatic mutation.
Barnes, C.O., Schoofs, T., Gnanapragasam, P.N.P., Golijanin, J., Huey-Tubman, K.E., Gruell, H., Schommers, P., Suh-Toma, N., Lee, Y.E., Cetrulo Lorenzi, J.C., Piechocka-Trocha, A., Scheid, J.F., West Jr., A.P., Walker, B.D., Seaman, M.S., Klein, F., Nussenzweig, M.C., Bjorkman, P.J.(2022) Sci Adv 8: eabp8155-eabp8155
- PubMed: 35960796 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abp8155
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
7UCE, 7UCF, 7UCG - PubMed Abstract: 
The induction of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) is a potential strategy for a vaccine against HIV-1. However, most bNAbs exhibit features such as unusually high somatic hypermutation, including insertions and deletions, which make their induction challenging. VRC01-class bNAbs not only exhibit extraordinary breadth and potency but also rank among the most highly somatically mutated bNAbs. Here, we describe a VRC01-class antibody isolated from a viremic controller, BG24, that is much less mutated than most relatives of its class while achieving comparable breadth and potency. A 3.8-Å x-ray crystal structure of a BG24-BG505 Env trimer complex revealed conserved contacts at the gp120 interface characteristic of the VRC01-class Abs, despite lacking common CDR3 sequence motifs. The existence of moderately mutated CD4-binding site (CD4bs) bNAbs such as BG24 provides a simpler blueprint for CD4bs antibody induction by a vaccine, raising the prospect that such an induction might be feasible with a germline-targeting approach.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.