Post by Scripps Research

In a first for the field, scientists at Scripps Research and Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet developed an experimental HIV vaccine that led every preclinical model tested to produce antibodies capable of fighting multiple strains of HIV. The vaccine targets the apex of HIV’s outer spike protein, a region that rarely changes between strains. Using nanoparticles coated with hundreds of copies of HIV’s spike protein, researchers vaccinated six preclinical models with a series of experimental vaccines that led to antibodies with activity against HIV strains the models hadn’t previously been exposed to. The findings, from co-senior author Professor Richard Wyatt and co-first authors F. Javier Guenaga and Shridhar Bale, mark the first time vaccination alone has produced this reliable outcome and bring researchers closer to a vaccine effective against the vast diversity of HIV strains circulating worldwide. More: https://ow.ly/WiTN50Z5H0Z