Potent HIV antibody research has opened up possibilities for HIV prevention, treatment
The discovery of how a KwaZulu-Natal woman’s body responded to her HIV infection by making potent antibodies (called broadly neutralizing antibodies, because they are able to kill multiple strains of HIV from across the world), has been reported by an international team of scientists. All HIV infected people respond to HIV by making antibodies. In most patients, these antibodies are not able to kill a wide range of HIV -- this is described as a lack of neutralization breadth. However, in a few infected people, they naturally make antibodies that kill (neutralize) many different kinds of HIV. The identification and successful cloning of these special antibodies enables the researchers to make sufficiently large quantities for further testing, similar to the way a medicine used to prevent or treat HIV would be tested.