A major challenge in developing a vaccine for HIV is that the virus mutates fast-;very fast. Although a person initially becomes infected with one or a few HIV strains, the virus replicates and mutates quickly, resulting in a 'swarm' of viral strains existing in a single body.
Scripps Research InstituteJul 2 2024 A major challenge in developing a vaccine for HIV is that the virus mutates fast-;very fast. Although a person initially becomes infected with one or a few HIV strains, the virus replicates and mutates quickly, resulting in a "swarm" of viral strains existing in a single body.
The HIV vaccine strategy involves stimulating the body to produce mature broadly neutralizing antibodies . bnAbs are among the immune system's key players in fighting HIV, since they can block many variants of the virus. The problem is that bnAbs produced by the human body are rare. The IAVI trial, spearheaded in part by Schief, focused on inducing the immune cells that could eventually evolve into the right bnAbs-;ones that could protect host cells from multiple HIV strains.
Priming rare antibodies In the first study, which focused on BG18, Scripps Research scientists collaborated with co-senior authors Shane Crotty, PhD, chief scientific officer at La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and Devin Sok, PhD, former vice president, discovery and innovation at IAVI. Using a priming immunogen, they consistently primed exceptionally rare BG18 precursors in a wild-type animal model.
Related StoriesSteichen was also co-first author on a second study, in which mice were modified to produce a low frequency of BG18 precursors. Scripps Research and IAVI scientists, along with the team of co-senior author Facundo Batista, PhD, associate director and scientific director of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, used priming methods similar to the ones used in the first paper.
"The findings demonstrate that we are able to make the antibody responses go in the right direction using this heterologous booster, which administers a different version of the vaccine than was given previously," says Christopher Cottrell, PhD, a senior staff scientist at Scripps Research who was the first co-author on this study.
What's next Overall, all four papers confirm that the priming step to turn on the right bnAb precursors is possible when it comes to developing an HIV vaccine. Three of those papers specifically demonstrate that it's also possible to guide antibody precursors toward becoming bnAbs that can fight HIV.
Vaccine AIDS Allergy Antibodies Antibody Antigen Clinical Trial Frequency Immune System Immunization Immunology Infectious Diseases Medicine Molecule Mouse Model Preclinical Protein Research Spike Protein Translation Virus
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