Pre-exposure antibody prophylaxis protects macaques from severe influenza disease

Hemagglutinin sequenced from non human primates challenged with H5N1 Vietnam 2004. This study showed that prophylaxis with broadly neutralizing antibody (bnAb) MEDI8852 is highly effective in protecting cynomolgus macaques from severe disease caused by aerosolized avian influenza H5N1 virus infection. Protection was antibody dose-dependent yet independent of Fc-mediated effector functions. To investigate whether MEDI8852 administration had promoted outgrowth of new influenza virus variants in this setting, we used high-throughput, single-genome amplification and sequencing (HT-SGS) to analyze full-length HA gene sequences in three macaques that had transiently increased replication-competent virus in BAL at 7 DPC