Re-Engaging Cross-Reactive Memory B Cells: The Influenza Puzzle

Re-Engaging Cross-Reactive Memory B Cells: The Influenza Puzzle

The emergence of a novel influenza A virus strain into humans poses a continuous public health threat. Vaccination is the most effective means of protection against influenza. The generation of memory B cells and long-lived plasma cells that can maintain protective levels of influenza-specific antibodies for protracted periods of time is the foundation for the success of such vaccines. Influenz...

Pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine induces a recall response in humans that favors broadly cross-reactive memory B cells.

We have previously shown that broadly neutralizing antibodies reactive to the conserved stem region of the influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) were generated in people infected with the 2009 pandemic H1N1 strain. Such antibodies are rarely seen in humans following infection or vaccination with seasonal influenza virus strains. However, the important question remained whether the inactivated 2009...

Frequency of Cross - Reactive Idiotype - Positive B Cells

Identification of antibody populations that share variable region determinants (idiotypes) among all individuals of an inbred strain has greatly facilitated the study of mechanisms that govern specific immune responses. In almost all cases, such idiotypes constitute a major portion of the antibody response, although the degree of clonal dominance may vary with the number of immunizations or dur...

Re-engaging with engagement

Single-Cell Analysis of the Plasmablast Response to Vibrio cholerae Demonstrates Expansion of Cross-Reactive Memory B Cells

We characterized the acute B cell response in adults with cholera by analyzing the repertoire, specificity, and functional characteristics of 138 monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) generated from single-cell-sorted plasmablasts. We found that the cholera-induced responses were characterized by high levels of somatic hypermutation and large clonal expansions. A majority of the expansions targeted chol...