Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies against HIV-1 As a Novel Aspect of the Immune Response

Abstract

The human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) has the ability to evade the adaptive immune response due to high mutation rates. Soon after the discovery of HIV-1, it was originally proposed that neutralizing of antibodies to the virus occurs rarely or cannot be elicited at all. In the 1990s, there appeared reports that sera of select HIV-1-infected individuals contained antibodies capable of neutralizing different virus subtypes. Such antibodies were named broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). Since 2009, the development of new cell technologies has intensified research efforts directed at identifying new bNAbs with a neutralization potency of over 90% of primary HIV-1 isolates. These antibodies have unique characteristics which include high levels of somatic mutations and unusually long variable loops that penetrate through the glycan shield of HIV-1 Env to contact the protein surface. In this review, we will attempt to summarize the latest data on bNAbs against HIV-1 in terms of their interactions with the sites of vulnerability on HIV-1 glycoproteins.