title: HIV antibodies for treatment of HIV infection.
abstract: The bar is high to improve on current combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), now highly effective, safe, and simple. However, antibodies that bind the HIV envelope are able to uniquely target the virus as it seeks to enter new target cells, or as it is expressed from previously infected cells. Furthermore, the use of antibodies against HIV as a therapeutic may offer advantages. Antibodies can have long half-lives, and are being considered as partners for long-acting antiretrovirals for use in therapy or prevention of HIV infection. Early studies in animal models and in clinical trials suggest that such antibodies can have antiviral activity but, as with small-molecule antiretrovirals, the issues of viral escape and resistance will have to be addressed. Most promising, however, are the unique properties of anti-HIV antibodies: the potential ability to opsonize viral particles, to direct antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) against actively infected cells, and ultimately the ability to direct the clearance of HIV-infected cells by effector cells of the immune system. These distinctive activities suggest that HIV antibodies and their derivatives may play an important role in the next frontier of HIV therapeutics, the effort to develop treatments that could lead to an HIV cure.
authors.affiliation: UNC HIV Cure Center, Departments of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: David M
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5714-0002
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Margolis
authors.affiliation: Immunology Laboratory, Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Koup
authors.affiliation: Duke Human Vaccine Institute and Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ferrari
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000920:Antibody-Dependent Cell Cytotoxicity; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015488:HIV Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D057131:Immune Evasion; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D015483:HIV Antibodies; D015488:HIV Antigens; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins
keywords: 
  ADCC
  ; 
  HIV
  ; cure; entry inhibition; monoclonal antibodies