A step forward to the vaccine against HIV

Science is moving forward, and scientists are coming closer to the solution of the mystery of the 21st century - the vaccine against HIV. This time they modified the antibodies and increased their ability to neutralize HIV-1. New modified Tri-NAb antibodies are now capable of destroying 99.5% of all known HIV-1 strains in the world. Science has never been so close to being able to defeat HIV.

Half year later, a group of scientists from the United States discovered the antibodies bNAbs, which at that time could widely neutralize 95% of the known varieties of HIV-1. However, widely diversified HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins (Env) rapidly acquire mutations to evade individual bNAbs in monotherapy regimens. Thus, the specificity of antibodies decreases.

The same group of scientists continued their studies and modified the already known antibodies bNAbs. Scientists used specific fragments of these antibodies, which are responsible for binding to cells CD4 of the immune system and to HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins. By combining these antibodies in tandem, a bivalent antibody was obtained which underwent further modification and was associated with a third bNAb that recognizes the Env membrane proximal external region (MPER) of HIV-1. The resulting trispecific bNAb was tested on all 208 known strains of HIV-1. As a result, he showed the ability to neutralize 99.5% of all HIV-1 and greater efficacy.

Thus, scientists succeeded in obtaining new multispecific antibodies combining functional fragments of bNAbs, which can achieve an outstanding ability to neutralize and destroy HIV-1.