CD4 <sup>+</sup> T Cell-Mimicking Nanoparticles Broadly Neutralize HIV-1 and Suppress Viral Replication through Autophagy
Gang Zhang, Grant R. Campbell, Qiangzhe Zhang, Erin Maule, Jonathan Hanna, Weiwei Gao, Liangfang Zhang, Stephen A. Spector
Abstract
HIV-1 is a major global health challenge. The development of an effective vaccine and/or a therapeutic cure is a top priority. The creation of vaccines that focus an antibody response toward a particular epitope of a protein has shown promise, but the genetic diversity of HIV-1 hinders this progress. Here we developed an approach using nanoengineered CD4 + T cell membrane-coated nanoparticles (TNP). Not only do TNP effectively neutralize all strains of HIV-1, but they also selectively bind to infected cells and decrease the release of HIV-1 particles through an autophagy-dependent mechanism with no drug-induced off-target or cytotoxic effects on bystander cells.