Fully Human Herpesvirus-Specific Neutralizing IgG Antibodies Generated by EBV Immortalization of Splenocytes-Derived from Immunized Humanized Mice

Abstract

Antiviral neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) are commonly derived from B cells developed in immunized or infected animals and humans. Fully human antibodies are preferred for clinical use as they are potentially less immunogenic. However, the function of B cells varies depending on their homing pattern and an additional hurdle for antibody discovery in humans is the source of human tissues with an immunological microenvironment. Here, we show an efficient method to pharm human antibodies using immortalized B cells recovered from Nod.Rag.Gamma (NRG) mice reconstituting the human immune system (HIS). Humanized HIS mice were immunized either with autologous engineered dendritic cells expressing the human cytomegalovirus gB envelope protein (HCMV-gB) or with Epstein–Barr virus-like particles (EB-VLP). Human B cells recovered from spleen of HIS mice were efficiently immortalized with EBV in vitro. We show that these immortalized B cells secreted human IgGs with neutralization capacities against prototypic HCMV-gB and EBV-gp350. Taken together, we show that HIS mice can be successfully used for the generation and pharming fully human IgGs. This technology can be further explored to generate antibodies against emerging infections for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes.