Experimental HIV vaccine successfully elicits broadly neutralizing antibodies to the virus

An experimental HIV vaccine developed by scientists at Scripps Research and the nonprofit vaccine research organization IAVI has reached an important milestone by eliciting antibodies that can neutralize a wide variety of HIV strains. The tests, in rabbits, showed that these “broadly neutralizing” antibodies, or bnAbs, targeted at least two critical sites on the virus. Researchers widely assume that a vaccine must elicit bnAbs to multiple sites on HIV if it is to provide robust protection against this ever-changing virus. The promising results, which appear in Immunity, suggest that researchers are one step closer to developing an effective HIV vaccine—a major goal of medical science ever since the virus was identified in 1983. “It’s an initial proof of principle but an important one, and we’re now working to optimize this vaccine design,” says the study’s senior author Richard Wyatt, PhD, a professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research. According to...