Recent news
August 2011
Researchers isolate potent antibodies against HIV
August 23, 2011 -- A team of researchers with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Scripps Research Institute, the biotechnology company Theraclone Sciences, and Monogram Biosciences Inc. have isolated 17 novel antibodies capable of neutralizing a broad spectrum of variants of HIV. The researchers report on their findings—which could open up new possibilities for designing effective HIV/AIDS vaccines—in the latest issue of Nature.
“Most antiviral vaccines depend on stimulating the antibody response to work effectively,” said Dennis Burton, a professor of immunology and microbial science and director of the IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center at The Scripps Research Institute. Professor Burton, one of the senior authors of the study, is also a member of the Ragon Institute. “Because of HIV’s remarkable variability, an effective HIV vaccine will probably have to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies. This is why we expect that these new antibodies will prove to be valuable assets to the field of AIDS vaccine research.”
In related news, other researchers have traced how certain powerful HIV neutralizing antibodies evolve, a finding that generates vital clues to guide the design of a preventive HIV vaccine, according to a study appearing in Science Express this month. The discoveries were made by a team led by the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “This elegant research brings us another step closer to an HIV vaccine and establishes a potent new technique for evaluating the human immune response to experimental vaccines, not only for HIV, but for pathogens generally,” said NIAID Director Anthony Fauci. See the links below for more information.
