title: HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies: understanding nature's pathways.
abstract: The development of an effective vaccine has been hindered by the enormous diversity of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) and its ability to escape a myriad of host immune responses. In addition, conserved vulnerable regions on the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein are often poorly immunogenic and elicit broadly neutralizing antibody responses (BNAbs) in a minority of HIV-1-infected individuals and only after several years of infection. All of the known BNAbs demonstrate high levels of somatic mutations and often display other unusual traits, such as a long heavy chain complementarity determining region 3 (CDRH3) and autoreactivity that can be limited by host tolerance controls. Nonetheless, the demonstration that HIV-1-infected individuals can make potent BNAbs is encouraging, and recent progress in isolating such antibodies and mapping their immune pathways of development is providing new strategies for vaccination.
authors.affiliation: Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA. jmascola@nih.gov
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Mascola
authors.forename: Barton F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Haynes
mesh_terms: D016915:AIDS Vaccines / Q000276:immunology; D000818:Animals; D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D016175:B-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D012106:Research
chemical_list: D016915:AIDS Vaccines; D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing; D015483:HIV Antibodies