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

疫苗对预防疾病传播很重要。成功的疫苗通过产生称为抗体的蛋白质，使人体的免疫系统做好准备，以对抗潜在的致命疾病，抗体可以识别和杀死病毒和细菌等致病因子。许多传染性病原体在其表面上具有碳水化合物结构。常规用于婴儿接种的细菌疫苗通过产生抗体来结合细菌表面的特定碳水化合物。此外，我之前的工作也表明，少数HIV感染者会产生抗体，结合病毒表面的碳水化合物，杀死HIV。这些观察结果表明，设计用于产生碳水化合物结合抗体的疫苗可以成功控制疾病传播。该项目的目的是了解人体如何在艾滋病毒感染期间和接种细菌疫苗后产生这些碳水化合物特异性抗体，以便制造新的疫苗。这项工作将涉及从艾滋病毒感染者和接种细菌疫苗的个人中分离出碳水化合物特异性抗体。我将确定抗体的样子以及抗体与哪些碳水化合物结合。将来，我们可以利用这些信息来设计新的碳水化合物疫苗，以防止疾病传播。因此，从长远来看，这项研究将广泛应用于许多在其表面展示碳水化合物的传染性病原体，并可能有助于预防艾滋病毒等传染病。

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.