Antibody-based HIV vaccines - are we any closer?

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Presented by Professor Maria Papathansopoulos and Dr Penny Moore of the NHLS/NICD and the School of Pathology, Wits, the Prestigious Research Lecture will focus on the hurdles faced and lessons learned from research conducted both locally and internationally on the immune responses of HIV infected people, and how these observations are now being translated into designing and testing novel HIV vaccine candidates.

HIV/AIDS continues to be South Africa's major health challenge and many consider a vaccine to be the best hope for ending the pandemic. For over three decades scientists have focused on designing a vaccine able to induce anti-HIV neutralizing antibodies and/or cell mediated immunity with little success.

However, results from a recent clinical trial that provided protection from infection have provided hope that a vaccine against HIV is in fact possible. Scientists are now looking for a preventative vaccine with the ability to elicit antibodies called broadly neutralizing antibodies, which are able to neutralise the wide range of global HIV strains. Neutralizing antibodies mediate protective immunity for most viral vaccines and studies have provided compelling evidence that the same will be true for HIV.

Research into HIV infected people has shown that the immune system has the ability to make these broadly neutralizing antibodies, although this only happens in a quarter of infected people. Furthermore, studies have shown how these antibodies emerge, which provides further insights into novel vaccine approaches.

The HIV envelope glycoprotein on the surface of the virus is the sole target of neutralizing antibodies. Evidence is now emerging about the architecture of the functional HIV envelope glycoprotein, coupled with how this protein evolves in an infected person over time and how this is finally providing a blueprint for appropriate vaccine candidates.

The Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits University is certainly at the forefront of this cutting edge research and as such the ninth Prestigious Research Lecture delivered by these two outstanding scientists promises to be both informative and thought provoking.

The lecture will be held at 5pm for 5.30pm in the Wits School of Public Health Auditorium.