Reduced anti-viral IgG repertoire in HIV-exposed but uninfected infants compared to HIV-unexposed infants
Rachael Gachogo,
Anna-Ursula Happel,
Berenice Alinde,
Clive M. Gray,
Heather Jaspan,
Sonwabile Dzanibe
Affiliations
Rachael Gachogo
Division of Immunology, Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Anna-Ursula Happel
Division of Immunology, Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Berenice Alinde
Division of Immunology, Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Division of Immunology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Research Institute, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
Clive M. Gray
Division of Immunology, Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Division of Immunology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Research Institute, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
Heather Jaspan
Division of Immunology, Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Department of Pediatrics and Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Sonwabile Dzanibe
Division of Immunology, Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Corresponding author
Summary: Infants who are HIV exposed but uninfected (iHEU) have higher risk of viral infections compared to infants who are HIV unexposed (iHUU). We explored the effect of intrauterine HIV exposure on the infant antibody repertoire by quantifying plasma immunoglobulin (Ig) G against 206 eukaryote-infecting viruses using phage immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhiPSeq) in iHEU and iHUU at birth and 36 weeks of life. Maternal HIV infection altered the infant IgG repertoire against eukaryote-infecting viruses at birth, resulting in significantly lower antibody breadth and diversity among iHEU compared to iHUU. Neonatal anti-viral IgG repertoire was dominated by antibodies against viruses belonging to the Herpesviridae family, although, by 36 weeks, this had shifted toward antibodies against enteroviruses, likely due to waning of maternal-derived antibodies and polio vaccine-induced antibody responses as expected. The observed reduced anti-viral IgG repertoire breadth and diversity acquired at birth in iHEU might contribute to the increased rates of viral infections among iHEU during early life.
