How a Powerful Antibody Neutralizes HIV OCTOBER 26, 2011
Surprising details of how a powerful human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) antibody grabs hold of the virus have been uncovered
by researchers using two U.S. Department of Energy Office of
Science x-ray facilities, including the Advanced Photon Source
at Argonne National Laboratory. The findings highlight a major
vulnerability of HIV and suggest a new target for vaccine
development. "What's unexpected and unique about this antibody
is that it not only attaches to the sugar coating of the virus
but also reaches through to grab part of the virus's envelope
protein," said the report's co-senior author Dennis Burton, a
professor at The Scripps Research Institute and scientific
director of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative's (IAVI)
Neutralizing Antibody Center. "We can now start to think about
constructing mimics of these viral structures to use in
candidate vaccines," said co-senior author Ian Wilson, who is
Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and m