New Insights into Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies Against HIV

A small fraction of people with HIV develop antibodies that neutralize a broad array of virus isolates. To shed light on what influences development of these broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs), investigators assessed whether two individuals infected with the same virus strain – a transmission pair – develop similar antibody responses. They call the ability of an HIV strain to elicit similar antibody responses in different hosts its “bNAb imprinting capacity.” From a cohort of >4200 people with HIV, the investigators systematically characterized 303 transmission pairs who were identified based on viral sequence similarity and clinical data.

Transmitters and recipients had similar neutralization fingerprints, suggesting that HIV is shapin…