Duke scientists have found a rare, potent antibody to HIV-1 circulating in the blood of a patient — the kind of antibody an HIV vaccine needs to induce:
2F5-like antibodies belong to a class of immune cells called broadly neutralizing antibodies, one of the body’s most powerful responses to infection. Only a small fraction of patients with HIV make these antibodies and they typically appear many months after initial transmission of the virus — at a point when scientists feel it is too late to do much good.Tomaras, working closely with lead author Xiaoying Shen, led a team of researchers who examined the antibodies present in 300 patients infected with HIV-1. They found only one patient who had developed 2F5-like antibodies, supporting the notion that they are, indeed, very rare.
Researchers discovered that the 2F5-like antibody was potent enough to block multiple strains of HIV in the laboratory, but researchers say they are not entirely clear if it played any part in controlling the virus in the patient who carried it.
The scientists were also struck by another discovery: The 2F5-like antibodies arose concurrently with particular autoantibodies that may be a clue as to why these antibodies developed in this person and not in others.