GPS-like system shows promise as HIV vaccine strategy to elicit critical antibodies

A team led by the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) has developed a vaccine approach that works like a GPS, guiding the immune system through the specific steps to make broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV. Publishing in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, the study describes an approach that provides step-by-step directions for the immune system to generate the elusive, yet necessary antibodies for a successful HIV vaccine. “HIV is the fastest-evolving virus known. So it’s been a long-standing goal in HIV research to create a vaccine that can generate broadly neutralizing antibodies that can recognize diverse HIV strains,” said lead author Kevin Wiehe, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and director of research at DHVI. Wiehe and colleagues started with an engineered version of a broadly neutralizing antibody in its original state, before any mutations occurred. Knowing that the antibody will need to mutate...