Human mode of responding to HIV vaccine is conserved from monkeys

The antibody response from an HIV vaccine trial in Thailand was made possible by a genetic trait carried over in humans from an ancient ancestry with monkeys and apes, according to a study led by Duke Medicine researchers. In a study published in the journal Immunity, the researchers report that an investigational vaccine that elicited an immune response in an estimated 31 percent of participants was able to do so because of a particular antibody gene motif that is shared with rhesus macaques and other primates. When activated by the vaccine, the antibody gene makes it easy for the immune system to recognize and attack the HIV virus at a specific location on the outer coat of the virus. The finding helps further the understanding of how the vaccine candidate, tested in Thailand in a trial known as RV144, triggered an immune response that provided modest protection. The RV144 study is the only...