Researchers Find Alternative Pathways to HIV Antibodies

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE on Tuesday, May 3, 2016
DURHAM, N.C. – The immune system appears to hamper an investigational vaccine from inducing antibodies that protect against HIV infection, but there may be ways to overcome this impediment, according to research led by the Duke Human Vaccine Institute.
Using mouse and monkey models, the researchers showed they could could identify the roadblocks to inducing the broadly neutralizing antibodies that are considered imperative for successful protection against infection. 
They then found alternative antibody pathways that approached the neutralizing capability of protective antibodies, setting the course for potential strategies to circumvent the immune system’s response and enable the desired protection from a potential vaccine.
“This is the first demonstration of the extraordinary ability of the immune system to get around this process of thwarting the development of broadly neutralizing antibodies in mice and monkeys, and it is very helpful to us to begin to predict how the human immune system will respond,” said Barton F. Haynes, M.D., director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. Haynes is senior author of a study published April 27, 2016, in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Even in recombinant mice specially engineered to make broadly neutralizing antibodies when vaccinated with the experimental HIV vaccine, the im...

Source: DukeHealth.org: Duke Health Features - May 3, 2016 Category: Pediatrics Tags: Duke Medicine Source Type: news