Tuesday, January 14, 2025
1/14/2025
ABSTRACT Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonize the nasopharynx and GI tract of healthy individuals and of patients admitted to hospitals. Colonization is the key risk factor for community-acquired and hospital-acquired MRSA invasive diseases. MRSA infection is associated with treatment failure, increased morbidity, and increased mortality. Prior attempts to develop vaccines or immune therapeutics that can prevent MRSA colonization or invasive disease or that improve the outcome of MRSA infections have failed. Infected individuals cannot develop protective antibody responses (immunity), which enables MRSA to persist within host tissues and to cause recurrent disease. MRSA immune escape is based on immunoglobulinbinding proteins, specifically staphylococcal protein A (SpA) and staphylococcal binder of immunoglobulin (Sbi). SpA and Sbi block effector functions of human IgG by binding to the Fcγ domain of antibodies. SpA also binds to the variant heavy chains of VH3-idiotypic immunoglobulin and crosslinks IgM B cell receptors, thereby activating B cell proliferation and the secretion of VH3-clonal antibodies that fail to recognize MRSA. This B cell superantigen activity (BCSA) of SpA is essential for the diversion of antibody responses during MRSA colonization and invasive disease. Here we describe a monoclonal antibody, MAb 3F6, that binds and neutralizes SpA and Sbi. We show that MAb 3F6 galactosylation at Fcγ promotes C1q binding, MAb 3F6- dependent opsonophagocytic killing (OPK) of MRSA and protection of mice against MRSA bloodstream infection. Further, we isolated amino acid substitutions in Fcγ that abolish SpA and Sbi binding and enhance the OPK activity of variant MAb 3F6. We also report that SpA is essential for suppression of antibody responses (BCSA) against bacterial colonization factors, thereby enabling S. aureus persistence in the nasopharynx and GI tract. Intravenous administration of MAb 3F6 into mice neutralizes circulating SpA and blocks its BCSA, thereby promoting antibody responses against bacterial surface antigens and the removal of S. aureus from the nasopharynx and GI tract. Here, we will test the hypotheses that intravenous administration of glyco- and Fcγ-engineered human 3F6-IgG1 in preclinical models a) elicits broad spectrum antibody responses against S. aureus, b) promotes decolonization of MSSA and MRSA, c) induces immunity to prevent re-colonization as well as invasive MSSA and MRSA disease, and d) improves the outcome of MRSA bloodstream infections. Glyco- and Fcγengineered 3F6 antibodies that achieve such product profile can be developed further for clinical testing to prevent and treat MRSA infections in American hospitals.
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