Andreas Meyerhans

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Spain

  • CAIXARESEARCH
    AWARDEE

    Andreas Meyerhans
    Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Spain
    Towards a universal therapeutic vaccine against chronic virus infections
    Project leader

  • CONSORTIUM

    Christian Brander
    IrsiCaixa, Spain
    Co-leader

  • HIGHLIGHTS OF
    THE PROJECT

    Chronic virus infections like those with Human Immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV) and Hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) viruses continue to threaten global health. A common feature of these infections is the persistence of virus antigen and the associated exhaustion of virus-specific T lymphocytes. Although the latter reduces immune-cell-mediated pathology, it is associated with a reduction of virus control that enables antigen persistence and has per se pathological consequences.

    Progress in antiviral drug development has enabled the clearance of chronic HCV infections in around 95% of infected individuals. However, this is not the case with chronic HBV or HIV infections. For example, while combination anti-retroviral treatment (cART) can reduce HIV loads to below detectable levels, treatment interruptions lead to rapid viral rebounds from viral reservoirs and the continuation of a high viral load infection state.

    The aim of our project is to identify universal immunological ways for shifting the dynamic virus - host immune system balance of a chronic virus infection into a state in which the virus is sufficiently controlled without causing pathology. To achieve this aim, we are testing diverse immunological regimen for their impact on virus control both in the mice model of chronic lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection and in ex vivo human infection models for chronic infections, including HIV, HPV and EBV. So far, our work resulted in 2 submitted and one manuscript in press. In these we describe the conditions for the feasibility of our approach (1), first results about short-term invigoration of exhausted T cells in chronic LCMV infection (2) and a study that establishes the technical platform to document the shifted polarization and activation profiles of T cell responses to viral infections and their association with different disease outcome in chronic HIV infection (3).

  • PROFILE

    Dr. Meyerhans is ICREA Research Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. Prior to that, he was Assistant Professor, at the University of Freiburg and Full Professor, at Saarland University, and has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute Biotechnological Research, in Braunschweig, and the Institute Pasteur, in Paris.

  • FULL CV

  • RESEARCH
    INTERESTS

    Infections with non-cytopathic viruses usually have 2 different outcomes. They may be eliminated by host immune responses (acute infections) or they may persist lifelong (persistent infections). Medically important examples are the Hepatitis B virus (HBV), the Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) that in adults usually follow an acute (HBV), a persistent (HIV) or an either acute or persistent (HCV) infection course. His laboratory is interested (i) to understand the factors that regulate the decision between an acute versus a persistent infection course, (ii) to define the factors that control the dynamic balance of virus expansion and immune control in persistent infections, (iii) to design immunogens to inhibit virus infections, and (iv) to generate quantitative descriptions of the virus/immune system dynamics by mathematical modelling.

  • REFERENCES
    OR LINKS

    • G Bocharov, D Grebennikov, P Cebollada Rica, E Domenjo-Vila, V Casella, A Meyerhans. Functional cure of a chronic virus infection by shifting the virus - host equilibrium state (manuscript submitted).

    • E Domenjo-Vila, V Casella, R Iwabuchi, E Fossum, M Pedragosa, Q Castellví, T Kaisho, K Terahara, G Bocharov, J Argilaguet, A Meyerhans. Immunotherapy of chronic virus infections: exhausted CD8+ T cell subsets are differentially regulated by XCR1+ and SIRPα+ DC (manuscript under revision).

    • L Romero Martin, F Tarres-Freixas, N Pedreno-Lopez, M Rodriguez de la Concepcion, F Cunyat, D Hartigan O'Connor, J Carrillo, J Blanco, M Ruiz-Riol, C Brander, A Olvera. T-follicular-like CD8+ T cells responses in chronic HIV infection are associated with virus control and antibody isotype switching to IgG. Front. Immunol., 2022 (in press).

  • CONTACT INFO

    Department of Medicine and Life Sciences - Universitat Pompeu Fabra
    Infection Biology Lab, DCEXS
    Dr. Aiguader, 88
    08003 Barcelona
    Spain
    Tel.: +34 93 316 08 31

    https://www.upf.edu/web/virology-unit