Production of site-selected neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies against the third variable domain of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 envelope glycoprotein

Cell lines secreting IgG1 human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to the envelope glycoprotein, gp120, of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have been produced by transformation of peripheral blood cells from HIV-infected individuals and by fusion of transformed cells to a human-mouse heteromyeloma cell line (SHM-D33). Two human mAbs were site-selected by means of a 23-mer synthetic peptide spanning a portion of the third variable domain of gp120 from the MN strain of HIV. The two heterohybridomas produce three times more IgG than do their parent lymphoblastoid cell lines. The specificities of these mAbs have been mapped to sequences near the tip of the disulfide loop of the gp120 third variable domain, Lys-Arg-Ile-His-Ile and His-De-Gly-Pro-Gly-Arg, respectively. The mAbs have dissociation constants of 3.7 × 10^-6 M and 8.3 × 10^-7 M, neutralize HIV_MN in vitro at nanogram levels, and bear the characteristics of antibodies associated with protective immunity in vivo.