[Report] Enhanced clearance of HIV-1–infected cells by broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 in vivo

Friday, May 20, 2016 - 00:13 in Health & Medicine

Antiretroviral drugs and antibodies limit HIV-1 infection by interfering with the viral life cycle. In addition, antibodies also have the potential to guide host immune effector cells to kill HIV-1–infected cells. Examination of the kinetics of HIV-1 suppression in infected individuals by passively administered 3BNC117, a broadly neutralizing antibody, suggested that the effects of the antibody are not limited to free viral clearance and blocking new infection but also include acceleration of infected cell clearance. Consistent with these observations, we find that broadly neutralizing antibodies can target CD4+ T cells infected with patient viruses and can decrease their in vivo half-lives by a mechanism that requires Fcγ receptor engagement in a humanized mouse model. The results indicate that passive immunotherapy can accelerate elimination of HIV-1–infected cells. Authors: Ching-Lan Lu, Dariusz K. Murakowski, Stylianos Bournazos, Till Schoofs, Debolina Sarkar, Ariel Halper-Stromberg, Joshua A. Horwitz, Lilian Nogueira, Jovana Golijanin, Anna Gazumyan, Jeffrey V....

Read the whole article on Science NOW

More from Science NOW

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net