title: HIV vaccine development.
abstract: Presentations at the 2011 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections reflected the resurging interest in antibody responses against HIV given the encouraging results of the Thai vaccine trial. A plenary talk and an entire symposium were devoted to HIV-specific antibody responses describing newly isolated, potent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies. These antibodies undergo extensive somatic mutation to achieve their remarkable neutralizing properties. Inducing these types of antibodies by vaccination, however, still represents a challenge. New data were presented suggesting that neutralizing antibodies, but not binding antibodies, can provide protection against infection in the nonhuman primate (NHP) model. Several interesting discoveries were also reported showing that cellular immune responses recognizing HLA-C and HLA class II molecules might also be important in control of viral replication. Finally, new vaccine studies in the NHP model showed that electroporated DNA, along with the adjuvant interleukin 12 may be an efficacious vaccine regimen.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
authors.forename: David I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Watkins
mesh_terms: D016915:AIDS Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology; D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing / Q000276:immunology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000639:trends*; D006678:HIV / Q000276:immunology*; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D011323:Primates
chemical_list: D016915:AIDS Vaccines; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing; D015483:HIV Antibodies