Decoding HIV’s Defenses: Innovative Vaccine Strategy Shows Promise

Results from NIH-funded animal models will inform the development of vaccines for humans.
Using advanced immunological techniques, researchers have effectively activated the immune systems of animals to produce rare precursor B cells that can generate a type of HIV broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). The results, published on May 30 in the journal Nature Immunology, represent a promising, gradual advance toward creating a preventive HIV vaccine.

HIV is genetically diverse making the virus difficult to target with a vaccine, but bNAbs may overcome that hurdle because they bind to parts of the virus that remain constant even when it mutates. Germline targeting is an immune system-stimulating approach that guides naïve (precursor) B cells to develop into mature B cells that can produce bNAbs. A class of bNAbs called 10E8 is a priority for HIV vaccine development because it neutralizes a particularly broad range of HIV variants.