{"doi":"10.3389/fimmu.2021.757811","title":"CD4+ T Cells Are Dispensable for Induction of Broad Heterologous HIV Neutralizing Antibodies in Rhesus Macaques","abstract":"Induction of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) is a major goal for HIV vaccine development. HIV envelope glycoprotein (Env)-specific bNAbs isolated from HIV-infected individuals exhibit substantial somatic hypermutation and correlate with T follicular helper (Tfh) responses. Using the VC10014 DNA-protein co-immunization vaccine platform consisting of gp160 plasmids and gp140 trimeric proteins derived from an HIV-1 infected subject that developed bNAbs, we determined the characteristics of the Env-specific humoral response in vaccinated rhesus macaques in the context of CD4+ T cell depletion. Unexpectedly, both CD4+ depleted and non-depleted animals developed comparable Tier 1 and 2 heterologous HIV-1 neutralizing plasma antibody titers. There was no deficit in protection from SHIV challenge, no diminution of titers of HIV Env-specific cross-clade binding antibodies, antibody dependent cellular phagocytosis, or antibody-dependent complement deposition in the CD4+ depleted animals. These collective results suggest that in the presence of diminished CD4+ T cell help, HIV neutralizing antibodies were still generated, which may have implications for developing effective HIV vaccine strategies.","journal":"Frontiers in Immunology","year":2021,"id":212269,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9573,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":426534,"name":"David A. Spencer","orcid":"0000-0002-5789-6202","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":757492,"name":"Philip Barnette","orcid":"0000-0002-8985-6192","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":349467,"name":"Shilpi Pandey","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":362961,"name":"William F. Sutton","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":443035,"name":"Madhubanti Basu","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":803013,"name":"Reuben E. Burch","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":54934,"name":"John D. Cleveland","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":293771,"name":"Alexander F. Rosenberg","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":226248,"name":"Javier Rangel‐Moreno","orcid":"0000-0002-9738-1182","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":608916,"name":"Michael C. Keefer","orcid":"0000-0001-9048-3621","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":347938,"name":"Ann J. Hessell","orcid":"0000-0001-7471-9366","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":347939,"name":"Nancy L. Haigwood","orcid":"0000-0002-1477-9575","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432142,"name":"James J. Kobie","orcid":"0000-0001-8069-0272","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":579534,"name":"Sanghita Sarkar","orcid":"0009-0002-2884-9578","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":49,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:52:27.434608Z","pmid":"34745131","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}