Exploratory positional differences in observed CDRH2 lineage-state transitions following HIV-1 germline-targeting vaccination

CDRH2 lineage-modal state profiles differed between homologous and heterologous HIV-1 germline-targeting boosting regimens, with a regional profile statistic of 0.027066 (exact p = 0.001709).

• Why it matters: Germline-targeting vaccination recruits VRC01-class precursors, but how CDRH2 positional lineage-state changes appear longitudinally across boosting regimens is not well characterized.
• What they did: Using published IAVI G002 data, Week-8 participant-specific lineages were matched to Week-24 observations and germline-to-nongermline changes were tested at seven IGHV1-2*02 CDRH2 positions with participant-balanced, mean-centered profiles and permutation inference.
• The result: In 15 participants (332 lineages; 241 observed state changes), descriptive differences appeared at V-relative positions 51, 54, and 55, and probe sampling recovered 181 baseline lineages with eOD-GT8 versus 143 with Cg28v2.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.