Antibodies for the prevention of HIV infection

The serum protected monkeys from the HIV analogue

Oleg Lischuk, N+1

American and German scientists managed to protect monkeys from infection with an HIV analogue for almost six months with a single injection of antibodies. The results of the study are published in the journal Nature (Gautam et al., A single injection of anti-HIV-1 antibodies protects against repeated SHIV challenges).

A vaccine against HIV is being developed by many scientific centers around the world, but so far none of them has proved to be sufficiently effective in clinical trials. A research team led by the US National Institutes of Health conducted passive immunization (administration of ready-made antibodies) to monkeys. For this purpose, monoclonal antibodies created on the basis of broad-spectrum neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs), which have been isolated in the last seven years in people with HIV (they are produced by 10 to 30 percent of infected people), were used. These antibodies demonstrate high activity against genetically and geographically different strains of the virus.

The monkeys received single intravenous infusions of antibodies isolated from three different patients: 10-1074, 3BNC117, VRC01 and its modified form with an extended half-life of VRC01-LS. Animals from the control group received a placebo. After that, the monkeys were rectally injected with a small dose of chimeric monkey-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) every week.

It turned out that after a single injection of antibodies, the animals withstood up to 23 weekly injections of the virus without becoming infected. The longest duration of protection was provided by 3BNC117 and 10-1074 (median 13 and 12.5 weeks, respectively). In VRC01, protection was less prolonged (median 8 weeks), and in its prolonged form VRC01-LS — 14.5 weeks. Animals from the control group took from two to six weeks to become infected (median 3 weeks).

The researchers note that the periodic administration of industrially produced bNAbs could provide a satisfactory level of protection for people from high-risk groups of HIV infection until an effective vaccine is developed. History knows a similar example: antibodies against hepatitis A were used to prevent infection when traveling to endemic areas until the 1990s, when vaccination against this infection appeared.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  29.04.2016