Cooperative Agreement U01CA295050

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a 5-year, $767,691 Cooperative Agreement (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA to conduct research aimed at defining critical antigenic targets and specific epitopes that induce KSHV-neutralizing antibodies, and evaluating the ability of these antibodies to protect against KSHV infection in a small animal model. The goal is to inform the design and development of a KSHV vaccine to prevent infection and associated diseases like Kaposi sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, and multicentric Castleman disease, which are common malignancies in people living with HIV worldwide. The research will leverage a repository of serum and PBMC samples from KSHV-positive participants to characterize the neutralizing antibody response, produce recombinant KSHV glycoproteins, isolate neutralizing monoclonal antibodies, and evaluate their ability to prevent infection in a humanized mouse model. Insights from this work will help define the relevant antigenic targets and epitopes to be incorporated into a protective KSHV vaccine.