New research discovers HIV vulnerability
Scientists have discovered a new vulnerable site on HIV that antibodies can attack to prevent infection from a broad range of the virus’ many variants.
Commenting, Professor Dr Dennis R Burton of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in California, United States, said: “HIV has very few known sites of vulnerability, but in this work we’ve described a new one, and we expect it will be useful in developing a vaccine.”
The findings, part funded by the European Research Council, are part of an attempt to develop AIDS vaccines that can trigger the human immune system to produce broadly neutralising antibodies (bNAbs).
In the first study, a team of scientists from TSRI, IAVI and Theraclone Sciences identified and described a promising new set of bNAbs, the PGT151 series. The researchers found that two of the antibodies in the series could block infection by more than two thirds of HIV strains found in patients worldwide. In the second study, researchers explored the newly identified target, which becomes the fifth well-characterised epitope, or binding site, on the surface of HIV.
Wayne Koff, chief scientific officer of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) added: “HIV mutates very quickly, within the individual and across populations. This new target offers a stable mark for vaccine design, increasing the potential to find a vaccine that can provide broad, lasting protection to people around the world.”
