Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 env Clones from Acute and Early Subtype B Infections for Standardized Assessments of Vaccine-Elicited Neutralizing Antibodies

Induction of broadly cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies is a high priority for AIDS vaccine development but one that has proven difficult to be achieved. While most immunogens generate antibodies that neutralize a subset of T-cell-line-adapted strains of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), none so far have generated a potent, broadly cross-reactive response against primary isolates of the virus. Even small increments in immunogen improvement leading to increases in neutralizing antibody titers and cross-neutralizing activity would accelerate vaccine development; however, a lack of uniformity in target strains used by different investigators to assess cross-neutralization has made the comparison of…

• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• CF
  Center for AIDS Research, University of Washington