An antibody from an HIV-infected person has successfully neutralized 98 percent of HIV isolates tested, including the lion’s share of strains resistant to other antibodies of the same class, US scientists have found. The striking efficiency of the powerful antibody, named N6, makes it an ideal candidate for further research to treat or prevent HIV infection, scientists from the National Institutes of Health, the largest biomedical research agency in the world, have stated.
Scientists scrutinized the evolution of N6 over time to understand how exactly it managed to develop the ability to potently neutralize the majority of HIV strains. Researchers say that identifying broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV has been a real challenge because the virus rapidly changes its surface proteins to avoid recognition by the immune system. FULL REPORT
