Antibodies found that prevent HIV from causing severe AIDS & may lead to a vaccine

[steven johnson]

Scientists spent three years looking for neutralizing antibodies in blood samples from more than 1,800 people in Thailand, Australia and Africa who had been infected with HIV for at least three years without the infection proceeding to severe disease. They then looked at the samples that were most resistant to infection. They were eventually able to isolate two antibodies, PG9 and PG16, from one African patient that were able to block the activity of about three-quarters of the 162 separate strains of HIV they tested it against. These antibodies bind to regions on the surface of the virus, called gp120 and gp41, that help the virus invade cells. The hope is that this new discovery will lead to a vaccine targeting these two regions.

LA Times
September 4, 2009


Scientists were able to isolate two antibodies responsible for resistance to the disease in an African patient. The discovery could be key to the development of a vaccine.

After nearly two decades of futile searching for a vaccine against the AIDS virus, researchers are reporting the tantalizing discovery of antibodies that can prevent the virus from multiplying in the body and producing severe disease.

They do not have a vaccine yet, but they may well have a road map toward the production of one.

A team based at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla reports today in the journal Science that they have isolated two so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies that can block the action of many strains of HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS.


Antibodies found that prevent HIV from causing severe AIDS