Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have isolated an antibody from an HIV-positive patient that is capable of neutralizing 98 percent of HIV strains. It's a success rate that makes it easily the most potent, wide-reaching HIV antibody and one that may have profound implications for the treatment and prevention of the disease. The group's work is published in the current issue of the journal Immunity. [...]
In reality, there are a lot of different HIV strains and a lot of different sites to bind to. The virus is always changing and evolving. Some patients, however, wind up producing broadly-neutralizing antibodies, which are able to hit a large number of strains. As such, they can potentially do real damage against a wholesale HIV infection made up of diverse and mutating viral strains. [...]
To be clear, we're not really talking cures here. The most immediate application would be in vaccine development, but it will likely have implications for treatment as well. In any case, N6 faces years of further testing. For perspective, the aforementioned VRC01 was discovered all the way back in 2010 and it's still in clinical trials.
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