Neutralizing antibodies (nAbs), in the time of COVID-19, have received much attention in the lay press owing to their association with vaccine protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The attention is well-deserved and the association of nAbs with protection is true for many viruses (1). For HIV, we eagerly await the results of the antibody-mediated protection trial investigating the ability of the HIV broadly neutralizing antibody (bnAb) VRC01 to prevent infection in humans (https://ampstudy.org/). Meanwhile, passively administered and vaccine-induced nAbs have been shown to provide protection against mucosal viral challenge in nonhuman primates (NHPs) (2). A recent analysis of a large number of NHP protection studies showed a good correlation between serum neutralization titer and protection (3). However, one set of bnAbs, those directed to the membrane proximal external region (MPER) of the HIV envelope spike, appeared to be outliers and offered greater protection at lower serum neutralizing titers. This phenomenon was first described for MPER bnAbs 2F5 and 4E10 (4) and was also tentatively noted for MPER bnAb 10E8 (5) and has been referred to colloquially as MPER bnAbs “punching above their weight.”

中文翻译：

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HIV 中和抗体类别和疫苗靶点的新生命 [医学科学]


在 COVID-19 期间，中和抗体 (nAb) 因其与针对严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 的疫苗保护相关而受到了媒体的广泛关注。这种关注是当之无愧的，而且 nAb 与保护的关联对于许多病毒来说都是如此 ( 1 )。对于 HIV，我们热切地等待抗体介导的保护试验的结果，该试验调查了 HIV 广泛中和抗体 (bnAb) VRC01 预防人类感染的能力 (https://ampstudy.org/)。同时，被动施用和疫苗诱导的 nAb 已被证明可以为非人灵长类动物 (NHP) 提供针对粘膜病毒攻击的保护 ( 2 )。最近对大量 NHP 保护研究的分析表明，血清中和滴度与保护作用之间存在良好的相关性 ( 3 )。然而，一组 bnAb，即针对 HIV 包膜刺突的膜近端外部区域 (MPER) 的 bnAb，似乎是异常值，并且在较低的血清中和滴度下提供了更大的保护。这种现象首先在 MPER bnAb 2F5 和 4E10 ( 4 ) 中得到描述，并且在 MPER bnAb 10E8 ( 5 ) 中也被暂时注意到，并且通俗地称为 MPER bnAb“超越其重量”。