Kaposi’s sarkoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV / HHV8) is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, and known driver of HIV- and EBV-associated endothelial and lymphoid malignancies in Western Europe. Despite its clinical significance and high disease burden no vaccine of specific treatment for Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) is available.
To advance our understanding of the humoral immune response to KSHV, we developed an affinity-chromatography-based approach to deplete and isolate antibodies from highly-neutralizing patient sera. Our work focuses on responses against the viral cell-attachment glycoprotein gpK8.1 and the fusion complex gH/gL, both of which represent promising vaccine candidates.
By evaluating neutralisation across multiple physiologically relevant cell types -- including epithelial cells, lymphoid cells, and primary endothelial cells -- we provided new insights into how glycoprotein-specific antibodies contribute to protection in a cell-type-specific manner. We believe these findings will contribute to the design of KSHV vaccine strategies by identifying and validating viral glycoprotein targets that elicit broadly neutralising responses during natural infection.
