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Equal Neutralization Potency of Antibodies Raised against Abrin Subunits

Authors :
Yoav Gal
Anita Sapoznikov
Reut Falach
Ohad Mazor
Ron Alcalay
Eytan Elhanany
Moshe Aftalion
Sharon Ehrlich
Chanoch Kronman
Tamar Sabo
Source :
Antibodies, Vol 9, Iss 1, p 4 (2020)
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2020.

Abstract

Abrin and ricin are potent AB toxins, which are considered biological threats. To date, there are no approved treatments against abrin or ricin intoxications. Previously, we showed that the administration of polyclonal anti-abrin antibodies to mice that were intranasally exposed to abrin, even very late post-exposure, conferred an exceedingly high-level of protection, while following ricin intoxication, similar treatment with anti-ricin antibodies resulted in negligible survival rates. To probe this unexpected difference in protection ability, we first examined whether the efficient anti-abrin-induced protection was due to neutralization of the A-subunit responsible for the catalytic effect, or of the B-subunit, which enables binding/internalization, by evaluating the protection conferred by antibodies directed against one of the two subunits. To this end, we generated and immunized rabbits with chimeric toxins containing a single abrin subunit, AabrinBricin in which abrin A-subunit was linked to ricin B-subunit, and AricinBabrin in which ricin A-subunit is linked to abrin B-subunit. Here, we show that antibodies raised against either AabrinBricin or AricinBabrin conferred exceptionally high protection levels to mice following intranasal exposure to a a lethal dose of abrin, suggesting that the high level of protection conferred by anti-abrin antibodies is not related to the neutralization of a particular subunit.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20734468
Volume :
9
Issue :
1
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Antibodies
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.3eb9387e6c245c3aa693a76d797f4cf
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/antib9010004