Antibodies with More “Hang Time” May Give Researchers a Jump on New HIV Vaccine Strategy

Researchers are inching their way toward a new HIV vaccine strategy by studying the cells of people who have naturally—and bafflingly—strong immune defenses against the virus.Last year, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Michel C. Nussenzweig's team figured out how to isolate key immune cells from rare individuals who are HIV-positive but carry very low levels of the virus in their blood and have only mild, if any, symptoms.That study found that these individuals produce a diverse army of antibodies—blood proteins that go after foreign invaders—to target HIV particles from multiple angles.Now, the team has discovered that some of these so-called 'broadly neutralizing antibodies' are versatile in another way: a single antibody can bind to two structurally distinct sites on an HIV particle at once. The findings are published in the September 29, 2010 issue of the journal Nature.Read more at...HHMI News, September 2010.