Broadly neutralizing antibodies targeting the V2 apex of HIV-1 envelope are desired as vaccine design templates, but few have been described. Here, we report 11 lineages of V2 apex–neutralizing antibodies from simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV)-infected rhesus macaques and determine cryo-EM structures for 9. A single V2 apex–neutralizing lineage accounted for cross-clade breadth in most macaques, and somatic hypermutation relative to breadth was generally low, exemplified by antibody V033-a.01 with <5% nucleotide mutation and 37% breadth (208-strain panel). Envelope complex structures revealed eight different antibody classes (one multi-donor) and the complete repertoire of all five possible recognition topologies, recapitulating canonical human modes of apex insertion and C-strand hydrogen bonding. Despite this diversity in recognition, all rhesus–V2 apex antibodies were derived from reading frame two of the DH3-15*01 gene. Collectively, these results define—in rhesus—the structural and genetic basis of HIV-1 V2 apex recognition and demonstrate unprecedented structural plasticity of a highly selected immunogenetic element.

CAP256 is one of the highly potent, broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (bNAb) designed for HIV-1 therapy. During the process development of one of the constructs, an unexpected product-related impurity was observed via microfluidics gel electrophoresis. A panel of complementary LC-MS analyses was applied for the comprehensive characterization of CAP256 which included the analysis of the intact and reduced protein, the middle-up approach, and a set of complementary peptide mapping techniques and verification of the disulfide bonds. The designed workflow allowed to identify a clip within a protruding acidic loop in the CDR-H3 region of the heavy chain, which can lead to the decrease of bNAb potency. This characterization explained the origin of the additional species reflected by the reducing gel profile. An intra-loop disulfide bond linking the two fragments was identified, which explained why the non-reducing capillary electrophoresis (CE) profile was not affected. The extensive characterization of CAP256 post-translational modifications was performed to investigate a possible cause of CE profile complexity and to illustrate other structural details related to this molecule’s biological function. Two sites of the engineered Tyr sulfation were verified in the antigen-binding loop, and pyroglutamate formation was used as a tool for monitoring the extent of antibody clipping. Overall, the comprehensive LC-MS study was crucial to (1) identify the impurity as sequence clipping, (2) pinpoint the clipping location and justify its susceptibility relative to the molecular structure, (3) lead to an upstream process optimization to mitigate product quality risk, and (4) ultimately re-engineer the sequence to be clip-resistant.

CAP256V2LS, a broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibody (bNAb), is being pursued as a promising drug for HIV-1 prevention. The total level of tyrosine-O-sulfation, a post-translational modification, was known to play a key role for antibody biological activity. More importantly, here wedescribe for the first time the significance of the tyrosine-O-sulfation proteoforms. We developed a hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) method to separate and quantify different sulfation proteoforms, which led to the direct functionality assessment of tyrosine-sulfated species. The fully sulfated (4-SO₃) proteoform demonstrated the highest in vitro relative antigen binding potency and neutralization efficiency against a panel of HIV-1 viruses. Interestingly, highly variable levels of 4-SO₃were produced by different clonal CHO cell lines, which helped the bNAb process development towards production of a highly potent CAP256V2LS clinical product with high 4-SO₃proteoform. This study presents powerful insight for any biotherapeutic protein development where sulfation may play an important role in product efficacy.

Recent work by our laboratory and others indicates that co-display of multiple antigens on protein-based nanoparticles may be key to induce cross-reactive antibodies that provide broad protection against disease. To reach the ultimate goal of a universal vaccine for seasonal influenza, a mosaic influenza nanoparticle vaccine (FluMos-v1) was developed for clinical trial (NCT04896086). FluMos-v1 is unique in that it is designed to co-display four recently circulating haemagglutinin (HA) strains; however, current vaccine analysis techniques are limited to nanoparticle population analysis, thus, are unable to determine the valency of an individual nanoparticle. For the first time, we demonstrate by total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy and supportive physical–chemical methods that the co-display of four antigens is indeed achieved in single nanoparticles. Additionally, we have determined percentages of multivalent (mosaic) nanoparticles with four, three, or two HA proteins. The integrated imaging and physicochemical methods we have developed for single nanoparticle multivalency will serve to further understand immunogenicity data from our current FluMos-v1 clinical trial.

We demonstrate a rapid deglycosylation strategy for recombinant HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein, enabling intact LC-MS mass measurement and furin cleavage monitoring.