BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product R&D

Sealing the envelope

A stabilized HIV envelope could induce broadly neutralizing antibodies

July 23, 2015 7:00 AM UTC
Updated on Feb 19, 2020 at 6:38 PM UTC

Research from two academic groups could bring HIV vaccines a step closer to the finish line by identifying new ways to stabilize trimers of the HIV envelope protein. The greater stability raises the chances that this antigen will elicit the broadly neutralizing antibodies needed for protection against a range of HIV strains, and could solve the long-standing problem of previous vaccines which primarily induced non-neutralizing antibodies.

HIV env is the cell surface protein that allows the virus to enter T cells, and has been the main target for HIV preventive vaccines since it was found that bNAbs from some HIV patients recognize the protein and block viral infection of host T cells. The idea is that using HIV env in a vaccine will elicit similar bNAbs that can block infection in most patients. ...