Antibody responses and virus escape: implications for HIV-1 vaccine and therapeutic design
Publication
, Journal Article
Tomaras, GD; Shen, X; Greenberg, ML
Published in: Future Virology
HIV-1 can escape from neutralizing antibodies rapidly during natural infection. Evolution of antibody escape is an important consideration for both vaccine and therapeutic development. Recent studies highlight both the potential strength of specific monoclonal antibody therapies for decreasing viral load and the need to understand virus escape in this setting. For envelope-based vaccine strategies, a greater understanding of both type- specific and more conserved neutralizing epitopes in addition to the evolution of these epitopes and the HIV envelope in response to selective pressure is critical in understanding and predicting vaccine efficacy. The pattern of virus envelope evolution, as a result of escape from antibody pressure, may be used ultimately to decipher the antibody specificities responsible for virus suppression and determine if a particular vaccine design or therapeutic regimen is potentially detrimental or highly beneficial to host survival. Integrative approaches using both traditional experimental methods and computational immunology for detailed mapping of virus envelope evolution in response to selective pressure may drive future innovations in HIV vaccines and therapeutic interventions.
