Recombinant Engineered Human Cytomegalovirus Antibodies

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous infection, with manifestations ranging from asymptomatic to severe end-organ dysfunction (Cannon et al., 2010). HCMV is an ancient virus that co-evolved with its host over millions of years, establishing a sophisticated balance with the host immune response and a lifelong latency.

Absolute Antibody offers a wide range of neutralizing antibodies against HCMV. The table below reports the complete list of the antibodies, including antigen specificity and applications as found in the literature.

HCMV Infection and Disease

The symptomatology of HCMV infection largely depends on the immune status of the host. HCMV infection in healthy individuals is often mild or asymptomatic. By contrast, it can be life-threatening among congenitally infected newborns and immunocompromised individuals, such as transplant recipients and HIV patients (Liu et al., 2015).

Fig. 1. ELISA activity data of antibodies MSL-109 (Ab00182, blue line), HCMV16 (Ab02066, green line) and an isotype control (Ab00102, orange line) binding to Cytomegalovirus gH Pentamer Complex.

The infection path of HCMV consists of three different subtypes of infection. HCMV primary infection occurs when an individual with no immunity against this virus becomes infected for the first time. Transmission happens via different routes, such as intrauterine, blood, breast milk, saliva, urine or genital secretions. Once the primary infection is brought under control by the host immune response, the virus remains dormant in some host cells. In this state of latency, infected cells are not producing any infectious virus, but retain the complete genome and have the potential to reactivate the virus at a later time (Wang et al., 2020). The third type of infection, called reinfection, happens when contact with an infectious individual results in superinfection of someone who has already been infected, despite their possession of acquired immunity. (Griffiths et al., 2021).

Currently, several antiviral agents have been approved for the treatment of HCMV. However, these only target cells actively replicating the virus and cannot be used long-term because of toxicity. Therefore, there is still need for research into the biological pathways of HCMV. Understanding the factors controlling latency and reactivation, as well as discovering strategies targeting latently infected cells in the absence of disease, is crucial for controlling and eliminating HCMV disease.

HCMV is a member of the Betaherpesvirinae family, closely related to Epstein-Barr Virus, Herpes Simplex Virus and varicella-zoster virus. HCMV is a linear double-stranded DNA virus containing the largest genome among known human viruses. The double-stranded linear DNA core is embedded in an icosahedral nucleocapsid, enveloped by a tegument layer, further enclosed in a lipid bilayer envelope. The outer lipid bilayer envelope is composed of various viral glycoproteins, such as glycoprotein B (gB) and glycoprotein H (gH), which are involved in cell attachment and penetration (Crough et al., 2009) and therefore are good targets for antibody-mediated virus neutralization.

Recombinant Engineered Antibodies

Absolute Antibody recombinantly produces anti-HCMV antibodies targeting the proteins gB (clones HCMV37, 5A6, 8F9), gH (clones MSL-109 and HCMV16), or the whole virus (clone EIV-15). The antibodies are engineered into different formats, such as rabbit IgG, used for co-labelling studies; human IgG and IgM, used in neutralization assays and as serological controls; and our proprietary Fc Silent™ format, which abrogates binding of Fc receptors.

Figure 1 depicts our ELISA data for the two representative clones MSL-109 (Ab00182) and HCMV16 (Ab02066) against Cytomegalovirus gH Pentamer Complex. This study confirms that the antibodies show good binding to the antigen.

If you would like to find out more about our anti-HCMV antibodies and their applications, please contact us. If you are studying other viruses or infectious diseases, check out our full collection of anti-virus antibodies, against targets such as coronavirus, norovirus and monkeypox.

 

Article complied by Dr. Lucia Lupica-Spagnolo, Absolute Antibody Junior Product Developer

Catalog NumberClone NameAntigenApplicationsFormats
Ab00641HCMV37gBNTRL, ELISA, IF, IP, IHC-Fr, ICCRabbit IgG
Mouse IgG2a
Ab014755A6gBNTRL, IF, IP, FCRabbit IgG
Human IgG1
Human IgM
Mouse IgG2b
Mouse IgG2b Fc Silent™
Mouse IgM
Ab020028F9gBNTRL, ELISA, IP, FC, WBRabbit IgG
Human IgG1
Human IgG1 Fc Silent™
Mouse IgG2b
Mouse IgG2b Fc Silent™
Ab02246EIV-15cytomegalovirusNTRL, ELISARabbit IgG
Human IgG1
Human IgG1 Fc Silent™
Mouse IgG1
Ab00182MSL-109gHNTRL, ELISARabbit IgG
Human IgG1
Ab02066HCMV16gHNTRL, ELISA, IF, IPRabbit IgG
Human IgG1
Human IgG1 Fc Silent™
Mouse IgG1

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