Since the 1980s, HIV has become increasingly resistant to human neutralizing antibodies. This development reduces the chances of developing an effective vaccine, explain French researchers.
On May 20, 1983, Pr Luc Montagnier, virologist, signed in the journal Science with Drs François Barré-Sinousi and Willy Rozembaum an article revealing the existence of a new virus responsible for the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It was the discovery of the vhuman immunodeficiency irus (HIV). “We thought: that’s it, we have identified the virus, we will find a treatment, a vaccine and the problem will be solved, and then we saw that it was more complex with this virus”, remembered recently and thirty years ago after Françoise Barré-Sinoussi in the columns of the daily Le Parisien. And, today, this hope still seems to be fading with a new French study published a few days ago in the journal Plos Pathogens. The latter reveals that HIV has become increasingly resistant to antibodies since the 1980s, further reducing the chances of developing an effective vaccine.
A French team (National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (ANRS) -Inserm-University of Tours) has indeed succeeded in validating this hypothesis by comparing the sensitivity to 13 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies to HIV-1 in patients with three periods of the epidemic: 1987-1991, 1996-200 and 2006-2010. The results reported by these researchers have admittedly confirmed the “continuous progression” of HIV resistance, suggesting an adaptation of the virus to the human immune system during the epidemic.
“While it was known that at the individual level, the virus knew how to adapt and bypass the individual’s own means of defense, our work confirms that the selection pressure exerted on the virus has repercussions at the level of the population, ”explains Martine Braibant, co-author of the work, in an Anrs press release released yesterday.
And, the researcher adds that, “until now, no one has succeeded in developing an antigen that results in the production of human monoclonal antibodies capable of neutralizing different clades of HIV. In fact, the development of a vaccine against HIV infection remains a distant goal, ”she said.
This task seems all the more difficult as the researcher also tells that at the individual level, “most patients develop monoclonal antibodies at early stages of the infection, but these do not prevent the progression of the disease. . On the contrary, they even exert a selection pressure which leads the virus to evolve into resistant forms ”.
However, these scientists also report reassuring news, because the team still managed to identify a combination of two antibodies capable of neutralizing in vitro, even at relatively low concentrations, the most recent variants of HIV. Perhaps the hope of a future vaccine …
.