To improve the design of HIV vaccines or develop the best antiretroviral therapy strategies, it is important to understand HIV antibodies and the humoral immune response.

B-cell receptor (BCR) profiling is essential in gaining this information, since upon HIV infection, B cells are activated and initiate somatic hypermutation to develop BCRs giving rise to antibodies with increased affinity. Previous research (Mouquet et al. 2010) has shown that these mutation events also gave rise to increased breadth and neutralizing potency.

Knowing more about these changes in BCRs is crucial for selecting the best BCR clones for HIV vaccines or anti-HIV antibodies. To acquire this knowledge, a highly sensitive and unbiased BCR profiling approach is required.

SMART-Seq Human BCR (with UMIs) and Cogent NGS Immune Profiler enable detection of all BCR isotypes, even those with heavily mutated sequences (Figure 1).

SMART-Seq Human BCR (with UMIs) detected all BCR isotypes with confidence. Panel A. Detection of all BCR isotypes for both heavy chain (IgA/D/E/G/M) and light chain (IgK/L) by SMART-Seq Human BCR (with UMIs) in 10, 100, and 1,000 ng input of PBMC RNA. Comparison across various RNA inputs shows consistent increase in clonotype count with increase in RNA input. Panel B. Chord diagram for heavy-chain (HC) and light-chain (LC) isotypes of 10 ng input of PBMC RNA.

References:

Mouquet, H. et al. Polyreactivity increases the apparent affinity of anti-HIV antibodies by heteroligation. Nature 467, 591–595 (2010).

SMART-Seq Human BCR (with UMIs)

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