Anti-HIV antibody formation

摘要

A better understanding of how HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies are generated could be a useful contribution to the design of improved AIDS vaccines. John Mascola and colleagues have now elucidated the immunological pathway of an important category of HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies - those that target the variable V1V2 region of the viral envelope. They are more frequently elicited than CD4-binding site antibodies in the early stages of HIV infection and feature modest affinity maturation, a process that favours mutations in antibody variable domains that enhance antigen binding.