New HIV antibody discovery could lead to vaccine, new treatments

A team of researchers, based at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., says it has identified two antibodies which appear to inhibit HIV’s ability to cause severe disease in infected patients.

The study was published Sept. 4 in the journal Science.

According to a story from the Los Angeles Times, the anitbodies, dubbed PG9 and PG16, attack the virus in an area previously not investigated by scientists. Those areas are the gp120 and gp141, which are thought to be involved in the virus’ ability to latch onto and infect cells in the immune system. Those particular points in the virus are also considered marker points for a positive test result for HIV on the Western Blott test– the more sensitive of two such tests conducted on samples for HIV.

Crucial to the discovery is the fact that the antibodies target a portion of HIV that researchers had not considered in their search for a vaccine. Moreover, the target is a relatively stable portion of the virus that does not participate in the extensive mutations that have made HIV able to escape from antiviral drugs and previous experimental vaccines.

“This is opening up a whole new area of science,” said Dr. Seth F. Berkley, president and chief executive of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which funded and coordinated the research.

Researchers and HIV specialists around the world have long known that some people are better able to control their HIV infections. This discovery could lead not only to vaccine developments, but potentially to new treatment avenues. Current medications to treat HIV target specific points in the HIV reproduction cycle, and medications that target this ability of the virus to infect new cells, thus killing them, could be another tool in the treatment kit for doctors.