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HIV-1 BG505 SOSIP immunization induced B cell expansion targeting the 465-glycan hole, with neutralizing antibodies exhibiting distinct binding modes and mechanisms of virus inhibition

Myers A, Chandravanshi M, Whitmore LS, Kohrn BF, Negash A, Nguyen DN, Ralli-Jain P, Cruickshank K et al.

PLoS pathogens, 2026

Abstract

High serum neutralization following BG505 SOSIP.664 envelope trimer immunization was associated with protection against BG505.SHIV challenge in rhesus macaques in a previous study. In an animal that developed high titer, durable neutralization against a glycan hole on envelope gp120, high throughput, longitudinal, antigen-specific B cell receptor sequencing was conducted. This analysis of more than 4,700 antigen-specific B cells revealed marked intra-clonal expansion and divergence from germline, including three abundant clonotypes that produced autologous neutralizing monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies from the neutralizing clonotypes and two other expanded non-neutralizing clonotypes targeted epitopes in the same glycan hole, with neutralizers also demonstrating different capacities to obstruct CD4 binding. Cryo-electron microscopy structures of four neutralizing monoclonal antibodies revealed that they bound to glycan hole epitopes using distinct binding modes. One neutralizing antibody displaced a glycan in the loop V5 upon binding and its footprint includes the CD4 binding loop. The findings provide insight into how antibody recognition of a prominent glycan hole could facilitate different mechanisms of neutralization while underscoring how intra-clonal expansion and maturation with repeated BG505 SOSIP.664 immunization drove high serum neutralization.

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