Dissecting the host immune response to bacterial and HIV carbohydrate antigens to guide vaccine design

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Vaccines are important for preventing the spread of disease. Successful vaccines prepare the body's immune system to fight potentially deadly diseases by producing proteins called antibodies that identify and kill disease-causing agents like viruses and bacteria. Many infectious agents have carbohydrate structures on their surfaces. The bacterial vaccines used routinely to vaccinate infants work by producing antibodies that bind the specific carbohydrates on the bacterial surface. In addition, my previous work has also shown that a small number of HIV-infected patients produce antibodies that bind the carbohydrates on the virus surface and kill HIV. These observations suggest that vaccines designed to produce carbohydrate-binding antibodies could be successful at controlling disease spread. The aim of this project is to understand how the body makes these carbohydrate-specific antibodies during HIV infection and following vaccination with bacterial vaccines so that new vaccines can be made. This work will involve the isolation of carbohydrate-specific antibodies from HIV-infected patients and from individuals vaccinated with bacterial vaccines. I will determine what the antibodies look like and which carbohydrates the antibodies bind to. In the future we can use the information to design new carbohydrate-based vaccines that may prevent disease spread. Thus, in the long-term this research will have wide application to many infectious agents displaying carbohydrates on their surfaces and may potentially help prevent infectious diseases such as HIV.