eLife (Sep 2020)

Antibody escape by polyomavirus capsid mutation facilitates neurovirulence

  • Matthew D Lauver,
  • Daniel J Goetschius,
  • Colleen S Netherby-Winslow,
  • Katelyn N Ayers,
  • Ge Jin,
  • Daniel G Haas,
  • Elizabeth L Frost,
  • Sung Hyun Cho,
  • Carol M Bator,
  • Stephanie M Bywaters,
  • Neil D Christensen,
  • Susan L Hafenstein,
  • Aron E Lukacher

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61056
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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JCPyV polyomavirus, a member of the human virome, causes progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), an oft-fatal demyelinating brain disease in individuals receiving immunomodulatory therapies. Mutations in the major viral capsid protein, VP1, are common in JCPyV from PML patients (JCPyV-PML) but whether they confer neurovirulence or escape from virus-neutralizing antibody (nAb) in vivo is unknown. A mouse polyomavirus (MuPyV) with a sequence-equivalent JCPyV-PML VP1 mutation replicated poorly in the kidney, a major reservoir for JCPyV persistence, but retained the CNS infectivity, cell tropism, and neuropathology of the parental virus. This mutation rendered MuPyV resistant to a monoclonal Ab (mAb), whose specificity overlapped the endogenous anti-VP1 response. Using cryo-EM and a custom sub-particle refinement approach, we resolved an MuPyV:Fab complex map to 3.2 Å resolution. The structure revealed the mechanism of mAb evasion. Our findings demonstrate convergence between nAb evasion and CNS neurovirulence in vivo by a frequent JCPyV-PML VP1 mutation.

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