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Antibodies, viruses and vaccines

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 2, pages 706–713 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Neutralizing antibodies are crucial for vaccine-mediated protection against viral diseases. They probably act, in most cases, by blunting the infection, which is then resolved by cellular immunity. The protective effects of neutralizing antibodies can be achieved not only by neutralization of free virus particles, but also by several activities directed against infected cells. In certain instances, non-neutralizing antibodies contribute to protection. Several viruses, such as HIV, have evolved mechanisms to evade neutralizing-antibody responses, and these viruses present special challenges for vaccine design that are now being tackled.

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Figure 1: The antiviral activities of antibodies.
Figure 2: Viral evasion of antibody responses.
Figure 3: Reverse vaccinology.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank K. Hasenkrug, P. Parren, P. Poignard, D. Watkins, L. Whitton, R. Zinkernagel and M. Zwick for critical reading of the manuscript, and many colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute for enlightening discussions. I thank the National Institutes of Health and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative for financial support.

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  1. the Departments of Immunology and Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, 92037, California, USA

    Dennis R. Burton

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DATABASES

Entrez

BLV

Dengue virus

Ebola virus

EBV

FMDV

FMLV

hepatitis A

hepatitis B

HIV-1

measles

mumps

polio

rabies virus

RSV

rubella

SHIV

SIV

TBEV

varicella zoster

vesicular stomatitis virus

yellow fever virus

LocusLink

CD46

PIGR

Glossary

AGAMMAGLOBULINAEMIC

A person who has an inherited disorder that is characterized by very low levels of immunoglobulins.

DNA-SHUFFLED ENVELOPE LIBRARIES

Libraries of envelope molecules that are produced by in vitro homologous recombination of random fragments of envelope genes generated from pools of parental envelope genes.

HUMANIZED ANTIBODY

An antibody in which protein engineering is used to reduce the amount of 'foreign' protein sequence by swapping rodent antibody constant regions and the variable-domain framework regions with sequences that are found in human antibodies.

ORIGINAL ANTIGENIC SIN

A phenomenon in which the antibody response that is elicted in an individual after secondary viral infection reacts more strongly to the viral variant that originally infected the individual. Can also be shown for closely related antigens of non-viral origin.

SUBUNIT VACCINES

Vaccines that contain only a small part of the pathogen, such as the protein that forms the coat surrounding the nucleic acid of a virus. Usually produced by genetic engineering.

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Burton, D. Antibodies, viruses and vaccines. Nat Rev Immunol 2, 706–713 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri891

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