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Copyright © 2008 Lim et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. Epitope characterization of the protective monoclonal antibody VN04-2 shows broadly neutralizing activity against highly pathogenic H5N1 Angeline PC Lim,1 Steven KK Wong,1 Annie HY Chan,1 Conrad EZ Chan,1 Eng Eong Ooi,1 and Brendon J Hanson  11Defence Medical and Environmental Research Institute, DSO National Laboratories, 27 Medical Dr., 117510, Singapore Corresponding author.Angeline PC Lim: lpeichie/at/dso.org.sg; Steven KK Wong: wkakhuen/at/dso.org.sg; Annie HY Chan: choiyi/at/dso.org.sg; Conrad EZ Chan: cenzuo/at/dso.org.sg; Eng Eong Ooi: oengeong/at/dso.org.sg; Brendon J Hanson: hbrendon/at/dso.org.sg Received April 17, 2008; Accepted July 11, 2008. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.  This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. | ||||
Abstract The monoclonal antibody VN04-2 was previously shown to protect mice against lethal A/Vietnam/1203/04 H5N1 virus challenge when administered pre- and post-infection. In this study, we characterized the binding requirements of this antibody using direct binding to hemagglutinin and neutralization assays with H5N1 virus-like particles (H5N1-VLP) of eight recent H5N1 strains representing the major mutations within the 140s antigenic loop. Binding was clade independent and 3 mutations within this antigenic region are required before escape is possible, suggesting that apart from the H5N1 viruses circulating in Indonesia, VN04-2 may provide protection against H5N1 viruses from all other regions. | ||||
