Key HIV-1 Antibodies Found Hold Promise for Vaccine

A Swiss research team is making strides in pinpointing special antibodies only produced by a small number of people infected with HIV-1 and utilizing them for a potential vaccine.

“Understanding the determinants of broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) evolution is crucial for the development of bNAb-based HIV vaccines,” the team wrote.

Over the years, the team has identified how the virus load and diversity of the virus, the duration of infection, and the ethnicity of the infected individual can affect the body’s immune response.

For their new study, the team evaluated patient data and blood samples from about 4500 HIV-positive individuals registered in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study and the Zurich Primary HIV Infection Study.

They identified and compared 303 potential transmission pairs and analyzed the influence of viral antigens in shaping antibody responses.

“By comparing the immune response of these pairs of patients, we were able to show that the HI virus itself has an influence on the extent and specificity of the antibody reactions,” said Roger Kouyos, lead author on the study and research group leader at the Department of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology at University Hospital Zurich.

Now, with this new piece of evidence, the team hopes to start developing a vaccine for HIV-1.

“We introduce the concept of bNAb-imprinting viruses and provide evidence for the existence of such viruses in a systematic screening of our cohort,” the researchers conclude.

“The bNAb-imprinting capacity can be substantial, as indicated by a transmission pair with highly similar HIV-1 antibody responses and strong bNAb activity. Identification of viruses that have bNAb-imprinting capacities and their characterization may thus provide the potential to develop lead immunogens.”

—Amanda Balbi

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