Unique antibodies open path toward new HIV vaccines

A family of broadly neutralizing antibodies from a chronically infected donor provides a schematic for designing vaccines and treatments that target multiple strains of the virus. Thanks to its diversity and tendency to mutate, HIV is a notoriously problematic vaccine target. Researchers have found hope in the existence of rare, naturally occurring antibodies that can neutralize multiple HIV strains, called broadly neutralizing antibodies. In a study published in Science Immunology today (January 27), a group of researchers based at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, described a unique lineage of broadly neutralizing antibodies from a chronically infected donor’s B cells and plasma that can bind a hard-to-access part of the virus. “It is a breakthrough because most of us thought that we wouldn’t be able to develop these antibodies in the first place,” said Nelson Michael, who directs the HIV research program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver...