The Role of Neutralizing Antibodies in HIV Infection
Michael Humbert 1, Ursula Dietrich 1
1 NULL
*Correspondence: Michael Humbert, Email not available
Abstract
Neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 play an important role in preventing viral infections. Lessclear is their role in the containment of viral replication in infected individuals. However, evidenceis accumulating that neutralizing antibodies may help the cellular arm of the immune response toprevent or delay the progression to AIDS. Detection of neutralizing antibodies depends on the invitro neutralization assays used, and standardization of the assays is essential in order to be ableto compare the magnitude and quality of a neutralizing antibody response in sera or other fluidsfrom HIV-infected patients, uninfected HIV-1 exposed persons, or vaccinated animals/persons. Viralmechanisms to prevent neutralization include high variability and extensive glycosylation of theEnvelope proteins, Envelope trimerization and shedding as well as late exposure of functionallyimportant entry domains by conformational changes induced upon CD4 binding. These are alsothe difficulties encountered in the design of immunogens able to induce neutralizing antibodiesupon vaccination.
