VRC01 – NIH Director's Blog (original) (raw)
Toward an AIDS-Free Generation: Can Antibodies Help?
Posted on January 19th, 2016 by Dr. Francis Collins
Caption: Left: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV); Right: VRC01 antibody (blue and green) binding to HIV (grey and red). The VRC01-HIV binding (red) takes place where the virus attaches to primary immune cells.
Credits: C. Bickel, Science Translational Medicine; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
This year, an estimated 50,000 Americans will learn they have been newly infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS [1]. The good news is that if these people are diagnosed and receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) promptly, most will enjoy a near-normal lifespan.The bad news is that, barring any further research advances, they will have to take ART every day for the rest of their lives, a regimen that’s inconvenient and may cause unpleasant side effects. Clearly, a new generation of safe, effective, and longer-lasting treatments to keep HIV in check is very much needed.
That’s why I’m encouraged to see some early signs of progress emerging from a small, NIH-supported clinical trial of an HIV-neutralizing antibody. While the results need to be replicated in much larger studies, researchers discovered that a single infusion of the antibody reduced levels of HIV in the bloodstreams of several HIV-infected individuals by more than 10-fold [2]. Furthermore, the study found that this antibody—known as a broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) for its ability to defend against a wide range of HIV strains—is well tolerated and remained in the participants’ bloodstreams for weeks.
Tags: AIDS, AIDS vaccine, antibodies, antiretroviral therapy, bNAb, broadly neutralizing antibodies, HIV, HIV-neutralizing antibody, human immunodeficiency virus, immune system, immunology, Phase I clinical trial, retrovirus, sub-Saharan Africa, Vaccine Research Center, virology, VRC01