AbD Serotec Ab fragment neutralizes HIV-1

AbD Serotec, a division of Germany's MorphoSys AG, says that scientists working at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the US National Institutes of Health, have detected a new epitope on the HIV-Protein gp41 using antibodies it generated from the MorphoSys HuCAL GOLD library. It has now demonstrated its capability to neutralize diverse laboratory-adapted B-strains of HIV-1 and primary isolates of subtypes A, B and C, according to data published in the Journal of Virology.

The ability of HIV to escape a neutralizing immune response has been a major challenge of the vaccine development effort, noted AbD, adding that, to date, only four potent and broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies derived from infected patients have been reported, but escape mutants of HIV have been described. Using a chimeric version of HIV-1 protein gp41 for antibody selection, AbD successfully selected the first broadly neutralizing recombinant mini-antibody. The synthetically, derived Fab-fragment targets a new epitope on the HIV-1 protein gp41 which is a potential target for therapeutic intervention being crucial in the process of envelope-mediated cell fusion between virus and victim cell, according to the German firm.