{"doi":"10.3390/vaccines8020284","title":"CTLA-4 Blockade, during HIV Virus-Like Particles Immunization, Alters HIV-Specific B-Cell Responses","abstract":"Studies have shown that blockade of CTLA-4 promoted the expansion of germinal center B-cells in viral infection or immunization with model antigens. Few studies have evaluated the immunological consequences of CTLA-4 blockade during immunization against relevant vaccine candidates. Here, we investigated the effects of CTLA-4 blockade on HIV virus-like particles (VLPs) vaccination in a C57BL/6J mouse model. We found that CTLA-4 blockade during HIV VLP immunization resulted in increased CD4+ T-cell activation, promoted the expansion of HIV envelope (Env)-specific follicular helper T cell (Tfh) cells, and significantly increased HIV Gag- and Env-specific IgG with higher avidity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) capabilities. Furthermore, after only a single immunization, CTLA-4 blockade accelerated T-cell dependent IgG class switching and the induction of significantly high serum levels of the B-cell survival factor, A proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL). Although no significant increase in neutralizing antibodies was observed, increased levels of class-switched Env- and Gag-specific IgG are indicative of increased polyclonal B-cell activation, which demonstrated the ability to mediate and enhance ADCC in this study. Altogether, our findings show that CTLA-4 blockade can increase the levels of HIV antigen-specific B-cell and antigen-specific Tfh cell activity and impact humoral immune responses when combined with a clinically relevant HIV VLP-based vaccine.","journal":"Vaccines","year":2020,"id":73233,"datarank":0.5752542636477076,"base_score":2.639057329615259,"endowment":2.639057329615259,"self_citation_contribution":0.3958585994422889,"citation_network_contribution":0.1793956642054187,"self_endowment_contribution":0.3958585994422889,"citer_contribution":0.1793956642054187,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":13,"citer_count":13,"citers_with_citation_signal":10,"citers_with_endowment":10,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9576,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":386558,"name":"Ethan Poteet","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":385443,"name":"Dongliang Liu","orcid":"0000-0001-5843-5451","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":386559,"name":"Changyi Chen","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":103753,"name":"Celia C. LaBranche","orcid":"0000-0002-6653-6655","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":258349,"name":"Sherry Stanfield-Oakley","orcid":"0000-0002-6347-1956","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":103755,"name":"David C. Montefiori","orcid":"0000-0003-0856-6319","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":249714,"name":"Guido Ferrari","orcid":"0000-0001-7747-3349","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":385444,"name":"Qizhi Yao","orcid":"0000-0002-2267-0588","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":386557,"name":"Phoebe Lewis","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":95,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:45:32.034078Z","pmid":"32517277","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":[]}