Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ACCENT (How antibodies and complement orchestrate protective immune responses against bacteria)
Período documentado: 2023-07-01 hasta 2024-12-31
Due to antibiotic resistance, there is now great interest in the development of alternative therapies against bacterial infections.
One way to achieve this is to develop antibodies that can boost the host immune system and help vulnerable patients to clear the infection.
With this ERC grant, I want to generate a better understanding of how antibodies protect ourselves against infection. When a person develops an infection, the body makes all kinds of different antibodies. Some antibodies can kill the bacteria. They do this by activating the "complement system"; this is a network of proteins in the blood that can ‘drill’ holes (pores) in the cell membrane of bacteria. We don't yet understand why some antibodies can kill bacteria well whereas others cannot.
If you understand that process, you can very quickly translate it into the development of antibody therapies (and perhaps vaccines).
We will be focusing the research on E. coli bacterium, because it is responsible for many antibiotic-resistant infections.
The overall objectives are to identify human antibodies against E. coli bacteria and use them to find out in detail how antibodies activate the complement system and combat the bacteria. Altogether, this grant will lead to fundamental knowledge about the functioning of the immune system and provide a biological basis for the development of antibody-based therapies against bacteria.
One way to achieve this is to develop antibodies that can boost the host immune system and help vulnerable patients to clear the infection.
With this ERC grant, I want to generate a better understanding of how antibodies protect ourselves against infection. When a person develops an infection, the body makes all kinds of different antibodies. Some antibodies can kill the bacteria. They do this by activating the "complement system"; this is a network of proteins in the blood that can ‘drill’ holes (pores) in the cell membrane of bacteria. We don't yet understand why some antibodies can kill bacteria well whereas others cannot.
If you understand that process, you can very quickly translate it into the development of antibody therapies (and perhaps vaccines).
We will be focusing the research on E. coli bacterium, because it is responsible for many antibiotic-resistant infections.
The overall objectives are to identify human antibodies against E. coli bacteria and use them to find out in detail how antibodies activate the complement system and combat the bacteria. Altogether, this grant will lead to fundamental knowledge about the functioning of the immune system and provide a biological basis for the development of antibody-based therapies against bacteria.
We successfully developed methods to isolate antibodies against E. coli from human blood and study their functionality.
We discovered several ways to improve the killing of bacteria via antibodies.
We discovered several ways to improve the killing of bacteria via antibodies.
Progress beyond state of the art:
Our results on how antibodies can be improved will impact antibody developments in other fields such as cancer and autoimmunity.
Expected results:
1) novel antibodies driving complement-dependent killing of E. coli
2) basic principles by which antibodies induce complement activation and bacterial killing via MAC and neutrophils
3) understanding functional antibody responses during infections
Our results on how antibodies can be improved will impact antibody developments in other fields such as cancer and autoimmunity.
Expected results:
1) novel antibodies driving complement-dependent killing of E. coli
2) basic principles by which antibodies induce complement activation and bacterial killing via MAC and neutrophils
3) understanding functional antibody responses during infections