Posted on September 26, 2018
Source: NIAID
"HIV Did Not Develop Resistance to Experimental Treatment
A small group of people living with HIV sensitive to two potent anti-HIV broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) —3BNC117 and 10-1074—tolerated multiple infusions of the antibodies and suppressed HIV for more than 15 weeks after stopping antiretroviral therapy (ART). The new findings, from a pilot clinical trial supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others, are reported today in Nature.
'A safe, reliable, antibody-based treatment regimen would open new possibilities for people living with HIV,' said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of NIH. 'This study represents an important, early step towards that goal and, importantly, helps establish that a combination of broadly neutralizing antibodies to HIV can safely suppress the virus in certain individuals without the apparent development of viral resistance.'
Rockefeller University investigators and their colleagues recruited 15 volunteers whose HIV was suppressed with ART and was initially found to be sensitive to both 3BNC117 and 10-1074. Participants received infusions of both bNAbs, stopped taking ART two days later, and received additional infusions three and six weeks later. "
