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Around one percent of people infected with HIV produce antibodies that block most strains of the virus, the antibodies provide the key to developing an effective vaccine against HIV. Researchers from the University of Zurich and the University Hospital Zurich have shown that the genome of the HIV is a decisive factor in determining which antibodies are formed.
A small number of people who are infected with HIV-1 produce very special antibodies. These antibodies do not just fight one virus strain, but neutralize almost all known virus strains. Research into developing HIV vaccine focuses on discovering the factors responsible for the production of such antibodies.
Virus load, genome of the virus and the diversity of the viruses, the duration of the infection, and the ethnicity of the affected person can influence the body’s immune response. In total the researchers found 303 potential transmission pairs- pairs of patients for whom the similarity of the viruses’ genomic RNA indicated that they were probably infected with the same virus strain.
Antibodies acting against HIV bind to proteins found on the surface of the virus. These envelope proteins differ according to virus strain and subtype. The researchers examined a patient pair with very similar virus genomes and at the same time very strong activity of broadly neutralizing antibodies and discovered that there must be a special envelope protein that causes an efficient defense.