Overview

My lab is exploring the human antibody responses towards the two pathogens responsible for the most devastating
diseases around the world, HIV-1 and TB. Our focus in the HIV field is directed towards understanding the basis for the
difficulty of developing an effective vaccine against this virus, and includes understanding the mechanisms for masking
of potentially protective epitopes, and identifying novel epitopes in HIV-1 Env that may be more effective vaccine
targets. In the TB area, we are isolating human monoclonal antibodies against various TB protein and glycolipid
antigens, and exploring the utility of these antibodies for both immunodiagnostic and immunotherapeutic applications.
These studies have recently allowed us to define the antigenic structure of the major M. tb surface glycolipid,
lipoarabinomannan (LAM) and to use these antibodies to develop a potential point-of-care assay for TB infection based
on the detection of LAM in the urine of actively-infected patients.

Complete List of Publications is available at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/abraham.pinter.1/bibliography/45519212/public/sort=date&direction=descend
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Education

PHD, 1973, Columbia University
BS, 1969, Brooklyn College

Curriculum Vitae

View CV

Relevant Publications

Choudhary A, Patel D, Honnen W, Lai Z, Prattipati RS, Zheng RB, Hsueh YC, Gennaro ML, Lardizabal A, Restrepo BI, Garcia-Viveros M, Joe M, Bai Y, Shen K, Sahloul K, Spencer JS, Chatterjee D, Broger T, Lowary TL, Pinter A. Characterization of the antigenic heterogeneity of lipoarabinomannan (LAM), the major surface glycolipid of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and complexity of antibody specificities toward this antigen. Journal of Immunology. 2018; 200(9):3053-3066. PMID: 29610143 PMCID: PMC5911930

Sigal GB, Pinter A, Lowary TL, Kawasaki M, Li A, Mathew A, Tsionsky M, Zheng RB, Plisova T, Shen K, Katsuragi K, Choudhary A, Honnen WJ, Nahid P, Denkinger CM, Broger T. A novel sensitive immunoassay targeting the MTX- Lipoarabinomannan epitope meets the WHO's performance target for Tuberculosis diagnosis. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 2018; PMID: 30257899

Amin AG, De P, Spencer JS, Brennan PJ, Daum J, Andre BG, Joe M, Bai Y, Laurentius L, Porter MD, Honnen WJ, Choudhary A, Lowary TL, Pinter A, Chatterjee D. Detection of lipoarabinomannan in urine and serum of HIV-positive and HIV-negative TB suspects using an improved capture-enzyme linked immuno absorbent assay and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Tuberculosis (Edinburgh, Scotland). 2018; 111:178-187. PMID: 30029905

Qualls ZM, Choudhary A, Honnen W, Prattipati R, Robinson JE, Pinter A. Identification of Novel Structural Determinants in MW965 Env That Regulate the Neutralization Phenotype and Conformational Masking Potential of Primary HIV-1 Isolates. Journal of Virology. 2018; 92(5). PMID: 29237828 PMCID: PMC5809737

Yates NL, deCamp AC, Korber BT, Liao HX, Irene C, Pinter A, Peacock J, Harris LJ, Sawant S, Hraber P, Shen X, Rerks- Ngarm S, Pitisuttithum P, Nitayapan S, Berman PW, Robb ML, Pantaleo G, Zolla-Pazner S, Haynes BF, Alam SM, Montefiori DC, Tomaras GD. HIV-1 Envelope Glycoproteins from Diverse Clades Differentiate Antibody Responses and Durability among Vaccinees. Journal of Virology. 2018; 92(8). PMID: 29386288 PMCID: PMC5874409

Perez LG, Martinez DR, deCamp AC, Pinter A, Berman PW, Francis D, Sinangil F, Lee C, Greene K, Gao H, Nitayaphan S, Rerks-Ngarm S, Kaewkungwal J, Pitisuttithum P, Tartaglia J, O'Connell RJ, Robb ML, Michael NL, Kim JH, Gilbert P, Montefiori DC. V1V2-specific complement activating serum IgG as a correlate of reduced HIV-1 infection risk in RV144. PloS One. 2017; 12(7):e0180720. PMID: 28678869 PMCID: PMC5498072

Nabi R, Moldoveanu Z, Wei Q, Golub ET, Durkin HG, Greenblatt RM, Herold BC, Nowicki MJ, Kassaye S, Cho MW, Pinter A, Landay AL, Mestecky J, Kozlowski PA. Differences in serum IgA responses to HIV-1 gp41 in elite controllers compared to viral suppressors on highly active antiretroviral therapy. PloS One. 2017; 12(7):e0180245. PMID: 28671952 PMCID: PMC5495342

Bradley T, Pollara J, Santra S, Vandergrift N, Pittala S, Bailey-Kellogg C, Shen X, Parks R, Goodman D, Eaton A, Balachandran H, Mach LV, Saunders KO, Weiner JA, Scearce R, Sutherland LL, Phogat S, Tartaglia J, Reed SG, Hu SL, Theis JF, Pinter A, et al. Pentavalent HIV-1 vaccine protects against simian-human immunodeficiency virus challenge. Nature communications. 2017; 8:15711. PMID: 28593989 PMCID: PMC5472724

Tian J, Lopez CA, Derdeyn CA, Jones MS, Pinter A, Korber B, Gnanakaran S. Effect of Glycosylation on an Immunodominant Region in the V1V2 Variable Domain of the HIV-1 Envelope gp120 Protein. PLoS computational biology. 2016; 12(10):e1005094. PMID: 27716795 PMCID: PMC5055340

Yates NL, Liao HX, Fong Y, deCamp A, Vandergrift NA, Williams WT, Alam SM, Ferrari G, Yang ZY, Seaton KE, Berman PW, Alpert MD, Evans DT, O'Connell RJ, Francis D, Sinangil F, Lee C, Nitayaphan S, Rerks-Ngarm S, Kaewkungwal J, Pitisuttithum P, Tartaglia J, Pinter A, Zolla-Pazner S, Gilbert PB, Nabel GJ, Michael NL, Kim JH, Montefiori DC, Haynes BF, Tomaras GD. Vaccine-induced Env V1-V2 IgG3 correlates with lower HIV-1 infection risk and declines soon after vaccination. Science Translational Medicine (2014). 6: 228ra239. PMI: 24648342

Areas Of Interest

HIV Vaccine TB Tuberculosis M.tb Immunodiagnostic

With the inability of available HIV-1 vaccines to achieve protection, there is a clear need for the identification of novel
vaccine targets and approaches. A key focus of the work of Dr. Pinter's lab is understanding the basis for the inability of
the immune system to control HIV, and identification of new targets and vaccine approaches that may be able to
overcome these limitations. The role of conformational masking towards neutralization resistance is being analyzed in
detail, with a focus on specific determinants that contribute to masking and identification of mutations that can reverse
this effect.

A second line of research in the Pinter lab is exploiting the human humoral response to identify novel antibodies and
epitopes that may have clinical utility. In addition to the focus on HIV, these studies have recently been extended
towards mycobacterial pathogens, including M.tb, the infectious agent for tuberculosis. This has led to the isolation
and characterization of novel monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from infected patients with high affinities towards the
major surface glycolipid of M.tb, lipoarabinomannan (LAM). These antibodies have allowed the development of a
sensitive assay that can detect the presence of LAM in the urine of most patients actively infected with TB. Current
studies are directed at improving the sensitivity of these reagents so that they can be developed as an effective point-
of-care assay for TB infection, and to study the potential of human mAbs against LAM and other protein and
glycoprotein TB antigens to control M.tb. infection and pathogenicity.