NEW YORK, April 16, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An IAVI-led team of scientists has defined an additional way to generate trimers from the major HIV subtypes A, B and C, with scalable properties that could benefit future clinical development of HIV vaccine candidates designed to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies. The trimer is the critical target on the surface of HIV for such antibodies.
The new method represents an important platform for AIDS vaccine discovery, says Rich Wyatt, senior director, viral immunology, at IAVI's Neutralizing Antibody Center (NAC) at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, CA. "These trimers also may be capable of expanding the range of trimers generated from additional HIV strains within each subtype," he added.
"This new approach brings us a step closer to the goal of designing a vaccine which can elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV's many strains," said IAVI Chief Scientific Officer Wayne C. Koff.
"Cleavage-independent HIV-1 Env trimers engineered as soluble native spike mimetics for vaccine design" was published in Cell Reports on Thursday, April 16. The authors, who include NAC and other TSRI scientists, are in the process of preparing additional papers from this research.
About IAVI
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is a global not-for-profit organization whose mission is to ensure the development of safe, effective, accessible, preventive HIV vaccines for use throughout the world. Founded in 1996, IAVI works with partners in 25 countries to research, design and develop AIDS vaccine candidates. The organization also conducts policy analysis and serves as an advocate for the AIDS vaccine field. It supports a comprehensive approach to addressing HIV and AIDS that balances the expansion and strengthening of existing HIV prevention and treatment programs with targeted investments in the design and development of new tools to prevent HIV. IAVI is dedicated to ensuring that a future AIDS vaccine will be available and accessible to all who need it.
IAVI's work is made possible by generous support from many donors including: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark; Irish Aid; the Ministry of Finance of Japan in partnership with The World Bank; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands; the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD); the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The full list of IAVI donors is available at www.iavi.org.
Media Contact:
Barbara Rosen, [email protected], +1.212.847.1056/+1.646.206.9331
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SOURCE International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)
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