New and Improved HIV Antibodies

Summary:

          A team of NIH scientists has developed a new tool to identify neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) that can prevent infections from many different strains of HIV found around the globe. This new invention is the advance that could help speed HIV vaccine research. It was not until now that available methods for analyzing blood samples began to easily yield specific information about the HIV antibodies or the parts of the virus they targeted. 

          The new tool lets scientists determine the HIV bNAbs present in a certain blood sample by analyzing the neutralized HIV strains in it. The process is called neutralization fingerprinting and is a mathematical algorithm that carries out data on HIV bNAbs generated in recent years. The neutralization fingerprint of an HIV antibody is a measurement of which virus strains it can block and with what intensity. And because blood samples contain mixtures of antibodies, the algorithm calculates the specific types of HIV bNAbs present and the proportion of each by comparing the blood's neutralization data with the fingerprints of known HIV bNAbs. 

          Neutralization fingerprinting is significantly faster than older analytic methods. According to the researchers who developed the new tool, the same approach could be used to study human responses to other pathogens, such as influenza and hepatitis C viruses.  

        

NOS Themes:

• Role of motivation or curiosity- The team of scientists were motivated to find good antibodies to fight off HIV because many people are dying of AIDS each year.
• Conflicts within the scientific community- Until now, available methods for analyzing blood samples have not shown the specific information that scientists are looking for to make effective antibodies, so they have not been successfully in "curing" HIV and AIDS.
• Science is collaborative- The team of NIH scientists worked together to create  new tool that efficiently identifies neutralizing antibodies that can fight off HIV.

Article Link:
http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2013/05/11/nih_scientists_create_new_tool_for_identifying_powerful_hiv_antibodies.html

Related Articles:

• http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2008/01/12/uncovering_the_achilles_heel_of_the_hiv1_envelope.html
• http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2010/08/03/nonhuman_primate_study_generates_information_relevant_to_hiv1_vaccine_strategies.html
• http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/09/03/2_new_antibodies_found_to_cripple_hiv.html

Created by Michelle Chang