Monoclonal antibodies that bind to common Epitopes on the dengue virus type 2 nonstructural-1 and envelope glycoproteins display weak neutralizing activity and differentiated responses to virulent strains: Implications for pathogenesis and vaccines

The abilities of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that bind to defined sequential epitopes on the dengue virus (DENV) nonstructural-1 (NS1) glycoproteins to cross-react with epitopes on the DENV envelope (E) glycoproteins were investigated. In this study, some of these MAbs cross-reacted with the DENV type 2 (DENV-2) E glycoprotein and with synthetic peptides representing X-ray crystallographically confirmed surface-exposed regions on this glycoprotein. MAb 1G5.3 cross-reacted with the flavivirus-conserved 101-WGNGCGLFG-109 fusion sequence, the 273-SSGNL-277 DENV-2 hinge region sequence, and the 156-GKHGKEIKIT-165 sequence of virulent DENV-2 strains. MAb 1G5.4-A1-C3 cross-reacted with the 67-NTTTESRCPT-76 and 156-GKHGKEIKIT-165 sequences of virulent DENV-2 strains, the 338-EIMDLDNRHV-347 sequence from a highly virulent DENV-2 (M2) strain, and two epitopes on a virulent DENV-3 strain (288-KMDKLELKG-296 and 323-RVEYRGEDAP-332), which all contained target ELK/KLE-type motifs (underlined). These MAbs showed reduced cross-reactions with the corresponding sequences from weakly pathogenic strains of all four DENV serotypes and had either no (MAb 1G5.4-A1-C3) or weak (MAb 1G5.3) neutralizing activity against them. MAb 1G5.3 more strongly neutralized DENV-2 strains with higher pathogenic capacities, while MAb 1G5.4-A1-C3 showed increasing neutralizing titers against the virulent DENV-3 strain and the moderately virulent and highly virulent (M2) DENV-2 strains. These cross-reactions with the E glycoprotein accord with the observation that MAb 1G5.3 caused dramatic and lethal antibody-enhanced replication (AER) of a DENV-2 strain in vivo. Together with in vivo AER studies of these DENV strains using MAb 1G5.4-A1-C3, these results may account for the increased pathogenic capacities of such strains, which is likely to have important implications for pathogenesis and vaccines.