Two Are Better than One

摘要

Two hallmarks of antibody recognition are high binding affinity and the ability of the two antibody arms to bind copies of the same region of an antigen. Eliciting broadly neutralizing antibodies by vaccination is a key therapeutic goal in fighting HIV. One conundrum, however, is that a critical HIV antibody target, the viral spike (gp140), is found at a relatively low density on the viral surface, and so the ability of an antibody to bind gpl40 with both arms is unlikely. Such monovalent binding would probably lead to less-effective viral neutralization. To better understand antibody binding to gpl40, Mouquet et al. analyzed 134 distinct neutralizing gpl40 antibodies and found that 75% of these were polyspecific, in contrast to 17% of control antibodies.