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ARTICLE | Preclinical News

NIAID, Sanofi develop trispecific bNAb for HIV

September 21, 2017 12:01 AM UTC

In a paper published in Science, researchers at NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Sanofi (Euronext:SAN; NYSE:SNY) identified a trispecific broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) which conferred 100% protection against simian HIV (SHIV) challenge in non-human primates. In late 2018, NIAID plans to begin Phase I testing of the candidate, VRC01/PGDM1400-10E8v4, in healthy volunteers.

Through a screening analysis of a panel of bNAbs, the researchers determined that the bispecific antibody arms with the highest levels of neutralization potency contained PGDM1400, which targets the V1/V2 glycan site of HIV env; 10E8v4, a modified version of 10E8, which recognizes the membrane-proximal external region (MPER) of HIV env; and bNAbs directed against the CD4 binding site, including VRC01. The researchers developed those bNAbs into a trispecific antibody...