Vaccine Institute tackles new roadblock in developing HIV vaccine

A discovery made by Duke researchers is shedding light on a potential new strategy for producing an effective HIV vaccine. The human body is capable under certain conditions of creating broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies, or bNAbs, to fight the virus. Led by Dr. Barton Haynes, director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, a team of researchers have studied 100 people infected with HIV—half of whom naturally produced bNAbs and another half that did not. This was done with the goal of inducing bNAbs in people without HIV as a potential vaccine, Haynes said. “We’re talking about developing a preventative HIV vaccine whereby we give the vaccine to someone who has not become infected, so that they will not become infected,” he said. This new work builds off prior discoveries by Haynes and his team. In March, Haynes co-authored a study identifying an HIV patient with “broadly neutralizing antibodies,” which imitated T-helper cells and...