Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

HIV

Antibodies advance the search for a cure

Nature volume 503, pages 207–208 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Efforts to make a prophylactic HIV vaccine have identified monoclonal antibodies that potently suppress viral replication. Studies in monkeys show that these reagents effectively treat HIV infection. See Article p.224 & Letter p.277

A major breakthrough from the HIV-vaccine research community in recent years was the isolation and characterization of novel antibodies from HIV-infected people that have the remarkable ability to efficiently neutralize most circulating HIV strains1,2. The antibodies' mechanism of action involves the recognition and blockade of evolutionarily conserved, functionally crucial structures of the HIV viral envelope. These unusual antibodies have reinvigorated the effort to develop an antibody-based prophylactic HIV vaccine by defining effective human antibody responses to the virus and providing a 'map' for reverse engineering of vaccines that recapitulate these responses. Because these antibodies develop infrequently, emerge only after many years of HIV infection and are characterized by a high degree of mutation1,2, this task is not likely to be quickly accomplished. But that does not necessarily mean that the clinical benefit of these antibodies is relegated to the distant future. On the contrary, two reports in this issue, by Barouch et al.3 (page 224) and Shingai et al.4 (page 277), demonstrate that combinations of such antibodies drastically reduce virus levels in chronically infected rhesus macaques, bolstering the hope that such therapies might be effective in humans.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Differences between conventional ART and mAb therapy.

References

  1. Mascola, J. R. & Haynes, B. F. Immunol. Rev. 254, 225–244 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Klein, F. et al. Science 341, 1199–1204 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Barouch, D. H. et al. Nature 503, 224–228 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Shingai, M. et al. Nature 503, 277–280 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Moldt, B. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 18921–18925 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Volberding, P. A. & Deeks, S. G. Lancet 376, 49–62 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Palmer, S. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 3879–3884 (2008).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Deeks, S. G. et al. Nature Rev. Immunol. 12, 607–614 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Deeks, S., Drosten, C., Picker, L., Subbarao, K. & Suzich, J. Nature Med. 19, 30–34 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Richman, D. D. et al. Science 323, 1304–1307 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Louis J. Picker is at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Beaverton, Oregon 97006, USA.,

    Louis J. Picker

  2. Steven G. Deeks is in the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94110, USA.,

    Steven G. Deeks

Authors
  1. Louis J. Picker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Steven G. Deeks
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Louis J. Picker or Steven G. Deeks.

Related audio

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Picker, L., Deeks, S. Antibodies advance the search for a cure. Nature 503, 207–208 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12703

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12703

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research