Since its discovery, HIV has posed a major threat to human health, affecting millions worldwide. Scientists have spent countless hours looking for treatments and attempting to develop vaccines. But now, scientists have found an alternative to conventional vaccines: an injection that shows promise in preventing the spread of HIV.
HIV presents a challenge to vaccines because it changes so rapidly. Studies have shown there are certain antibodies that can broadly neutralize HIV-1, preventing it from infecting cells. But these antibodies can only effectively neutralize 10-50 percent of HIV-1 isolates—to provide protection, you’d need unrealistically high levels of the antibodies in your system. So the search for development of an effective vaccine has continued.
Recently, scientists have designed an antibody (they’re calling it eCDF-Ig) that simultaneously binds two sites on the virus’ surface, neutralizing HIV more efficiently than previous antibodies.
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