Fig 1. Boosting of RV144 vaccinees increased VH chain gene mutation frequency and caused a repertoire shift, increasing the frequency of antibodies with Heavy Chain Complementary Determinant Region 3 (HCDR3) ≥ 22 amino acids.
PBMCs from four vaccinees post-RV144 (A&B) and post-RV305 (C&D) were antigen-specific single-cell sorted with fluorophore labeled conjugates. The VH/VL chain genes were PCR-amplified and screened for Env-reactivity by ELISA. The VH chain gene mutation frequency and HCDR3 lengths of 145 Env-reactive antibodies from RV135/144 and 242 Env-reactive antibodies from RV305 were analyzed with Cloanalyst[56]. (A&C) Error bars represent the standard error of the mean.