Biography
Dr. Diane Bolton is an Investigator at the Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) in Silver Spring, Maryland. She received her B.A. in Human Biology from Brown University and her Ph.D. from the NIH-Johns Hopkins University cooperative graduate program and has been chief of MHRP’s Animal Models & Viral Persistence Section since 2013. She is a trained virologist and immunologist with experience in evaluating vaccine platforms and delivery strategies in nonhuman primate models of HIV, tuberculosis, and SARS-CoV-2. Her research focuses on both prophylactic vaccination and therapeutic approaches, and also includes investigation of mechanisms of HIV-1 persistence through characterization of viral reservoirs to inform cure strategies.
Research
The Animal Models and Viral Persistence Laboratory, led by Dr. Bolton, focuses on immune responses to vaccination and mechanisms of viral persistence during HIV/SIV infection. Her team explores the adaptive immune responses to prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine regimens to elucidate cellular and humoral correlates of protection. Emphasis is placed on pre-clinical nonhuman primate animal models as well as clinical trials.
Persistence of HIV-1 reservoirs represents the primary barrier to curing HIV-1 infection. Cure strategies aiming to eliminate infected cell reservoirs are hampered by a poor understanding of host cells harboring virus in vivo, including biomarkers that definitively distinguish them. The Bolton Lab probes clinical and pre-clinical specimens for infected cells by state-of-the-art molecular analyses to address questions regarding: 1) infected cell burden across anatomical compartments and infection stages; and 2) novel host factors involved in viral replication and persistence. These studies inform preventative vaccines and therapeutic curative interventions.
Recent Publications
King HAD, Dussupt V, Mendez-Rivera L, Slike BM, Tran U, Jackson ND, Barkei E, Zemil M, Tourtellott-Fogt E, Kuklis CH, Soman S, Ahmed A, Porto M, Kitajewski C, Spence B, Benetiene D, Wieczorek L, Kar S, Gromowski G, Polonis VR, Krebs SJ, Modjarrad K, Bolton DL. Convalescent human IgG, but not IgM, from COVID-19 survivors confers dose-dependent protection against SARS-CoV-2 replication and disease in hamsters. Front Immunol. 2023 Mar 21;14:1138629. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1138629. PMID: 37026013.
Joyce MG, King HAD, Elakhal-Naouar I, Ahmed A, Peachman KK, Macedo Cincotta C, Subra C, Chen RE, Thomas PV, Chen WH, Sankhala RS, Hajduczki A, Martinez EJ, Peterson CE, Chang WC, Choe M, Smith C, Lee PJ, Headley JA, Taddese MG, Elyard HA, Cook A, Anderson A, Wuertz KM, Dong M, Swafford I, Case JB, Currier JR, Lal KG, Molnar S, Nair MS, Dussupt V, Daye SP, Zeng X, Barkei EK, Staples HM, Alfson K, Carrion R, Krebs SJ, Paquin-Proulx D, Karasavva N, Polonis VR, Jagodzinski LL, Amare MF, Vasan S, Scott PT, Huang Y, Ho DD, de Val N, Diamond MS, Lewis MG, Rao M, Matyas GR, Gromowski GD, Peel SA, Michael NL, Bolton DL, Modjarrad K. A SARS-CoV-2 ferritin nanoparticle vaccine elicits protective immune responses in nonhuman primates. Sci Transl Med. 2021 Dec 16;:eabi5735. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 34914540.
Sharma V, Creegan M, Tokarev A, Hsu D, Slike BM, Sacdalan C, Chan P, Spudich S, Ananworanich J, Eller MA, Krebs SJ, Vasan S, Bolton DL. Cerebrospinal fluid CD4+ T cell infection in humans and macaques during acute HIV-1 and SHIV infection. PLoS Pathog. 2021 Dec;17(12):e1010105. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010105. eCollection 2021 Dec. PubMed PMID: 34874976; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8683024.
Wuertz KM, Barkei EK, Chen WH, Martinez EJ, Lakhal-Naouar I, Jagodzinski LL, Paquin-Proulx D, Gromowski GD, Swafford I, Ganesh A, Dong M, Zeng X, Thomas PV, Sankhala RS, Hajduczki A, Peterson CE, Kuklis C, Soman S, Wieczorek L, Zemil M, Anderson A, Darden J, Hernandez H, Grove H, Dussupt V, Hack H, de la Barrera R, Zarling S, Wood JF, Froude JW, Gagne M, Henry AR, Mokhtari EB, Mudvari P, Krebs SJ, Pekosz AS, Currier JR, Kar S, Porto M, Winn A, Radzyminski K, Lewis MG, Vasan S, Suthar M, Polonis VR, Matyas GR, Boritz EA, Douek DC, Seder RA, Daye SP, Rao M, Peel SA, Joyce MG, Bolton DL, Michael NL, Modjarrad K. A SARS-CoV-2 spike ferritin nanoparticle vaccine protects hamsters against Alpha and Beta virus variant challenge. NPJ Vaccines. 2021 Oct 28;6(1):129. doi: 10.1038/s41541-021-00392-7. PubMed PMID: 34711815; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8553838.
King HAD, Joyce MG, Lakhal-Naouar I, Ahmed A, Cincotta CM, Subra C, Peachman KK, Hack HR, Chen RE, Thomas PV, Chen WH, Sankhala RS, Hajduczki A, Martinez EJ, Peterson CE, Chang WC, Choe M, Smith C, Headley JA, Elyard HA, Cook A, Anderson A, Wuertz KM, Dong M, Swafford I, Case JB, Currier JR, Lal KG, Amare MF, Dussupt V, Molnar S, Daye SP, Zeng X, Barkei EK, Alfson K, Staples HM, Carrion R, Krebs SJ, Paquin-Proulx D, Karasavvas N, Polonis VR, Jagodzinski LL, Vasan S, Scott PT, Huang Y, Nair MS, Ho DD, de Val N, Diamond MS, Lewis MG, Rao M, Matyas GR, Gromowski GD, Peel SA, Michael NL, Modjarrad K, Bolton DL. Efficacy and breadth of adjuvanted SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain nanoparticle vaccine in macaques. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Sep 21;118(38). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2106433118. PubMed PMID: 34470866; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8463842.
Lu P, Guerin DJ, Lin S, Chaudhury S, Ackerman ME, Bolton DL, Wallqvist A. Immunoprofiling Correlates of Protection Against SHIV Infection in Adjuvanted HIV-1 Pox-Protein Vaccinated Rhesus Macaques. Front Immunol. 2021;12:625030. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.625030. eCollection 2021. PubMed PMID: 34046030; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8144500.
Tokarev A, McKinnon LR, Pagliuzza A, Sivro A, Omole TE, Kroon E, Chomchey N, Phanuphak N, Schuetz A, Robb ML, Eller MA, Ananworanich J, Chomont N, Bolton DL. Preferential Infection of α4β7+ Memory CD4+ T Cells During Early Acute Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection. Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Dec 31;71(11):e735-e743. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa497. PubMed PMID: 32348459; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7778353.
Om K, Paquin-Proulx D, Montero M, Peachman K, Shen X, Wieczorek L, Beck Z, Weiner JA, Kim D, Li Y, Mdluli T, Shubin Z, Bryant C, Sharma V, Tokarev A, Dawson P, White Y, Appelbe O, Klatt NR, Tovanabutra S, Estes JD, Matyas GR, Ferrari G, Alving CR, Tomaras GD, Ackerman ME, Michael NL, Robb ML, Polonis V, Rolland M, Eller MA, Rao M, Bolton DL. Adjuvanted HIV-1 vaccine promotes antibody-dependent phagocytic responses and protects against heterologous SHIV challenge. PLoS Pathog. 2020 Sep;16(9):e1008764. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008764. eCollection 2020 Sep. PubMed PMID: 32881968; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7505435.
Sharma V, Bryant C, Montero M, Creegan M, Slike B, Krebs SJ, Ratto-Kim S, Valcour V, Sithinamsuwan P, Chalermchai T, Eller MA, Bolton DL. Monocyte and CD4+ T-cell antiviral and innate responses associated with HIV-1 inflammation and cognitive impairment. AIDS. 2020 Jul 15;34(9):1289-1301. doi: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000002537. PubMed PMID: 32598115.
Tokarev A, McKinnon LR, Pagliuzza A, Sivro A, Omole TE, Kroon E, Chomchey N, Phanuphak N, Schuetz A, Robb ML, Eller MA, Ananworanich J, Chomont N, Bolton DL. Preferential infection of α4β7+ memory CD4+ T cells during early acute HIV-1 infection. Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Apr 29;. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa497. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32348459.
Chattopadhyay PK, Roederer M, Bolton DL. A deadly dance: the choreography of host-pathogen interactions, as revealed by single-cell technologies. Nat Commun. 2018 Nov 6;9(1):4638. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06214-0. Review. PubMed PMID: 30401874; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6219517.
Full bibliography link.