Directing the production of broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV

Researchers have developed a GPS vaccine that guides the immune system to create broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV.

For many years, researchers have been trying to develop an HIV vaccine that can keep up with the virus’ high mutation rate. Neutralizing antibodies are an attractive therapeutic agent thanks to their ability to recognize and attack diverse HIV strains. Led by the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (NC, USA), researchers have developed a vaccine that functions like a GPS, directing the production of neutralizing antibodies against HIV.

To develop this vaccine approach, the team first engineered a broadly neutralizing antibody without any mutations. They then sequentially added mutations to determine which mutations were required for the antibody to neutralize the ever-changing HIV. In doing so, the team was able to map the exact mutational route that an antibody would need to take to become a broadly neutralizing antibody.

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Using this route guidance, the researchers were able to develop a vaccine containing the information the immune system needs to direct the production of broadly neutralizing antibodies. They tested the vaccine in mice bred to encode basic neutralizing antibodies, without any mutations. They found that following vaccination, the mice produced broadly neutralizing antibodies with the mutations encoded in the vaccine.

Although the challenge of reproducing such results in primate and human studies remains, this research is a promising step forward in vaccine development against HIV and beyond. Their work highlights the potential for developing vaccines that can harness the immune system to create specific antibodies against other diseases.

“This paper shows that our mutation-guided vaccine strategy can work,” commented first author Kevin Wiehe. “This strategy potentially gives us a way to design vaccines to direct the immune system to make any antibody we want, which could be a broadly neutralizing antibody for all coronavirus variants, or an anti-cancer antibody.”