![](//www.4rfv.com/4rfv_news_images/scripps_scripts/INQSMNTQBM4Y_0.jpg)
Advancing toward a preventative HIV vaccine Across four preclinical studies, Scripps Research, IAVI, and additional collaborators make headway in stimulating the rare antibodies needed to fight HIV.
July 02, 2024
LA JOLLA, CA and NEW YORK, NY A major challenge in developing a vaccine for HIV is that the virus mutates fast very fast. Although a person initially becomes infected with one or a few HIV strains, the virus replicates and mutates quickly, resulting in a swarm of viral strains existing in a single body. But scientists at Scripps Research; IAVI; the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard; La Jolla Institute for Immunology; and additional institutions have conducted a series of preclinical trials indicating that they're potentially closer to an immunization regimen than ever before one that could produce rare antibodies that would be effective against a wide range of HIV strains.
Published in Science, Science Immunology, and Science Translation Medicine on May 16, 2024, the findings are outlined in four individual papers and build on a 2022 phase I clinical trial conducted by the nonprofit scientific research organization IAVI. The findings represent a key step forward in an immunization strategy that could protect against the virus.
All in all, these studies show that we have a good chance at creating an effective HIV vaccine we just need to keep iterating and build on these findings in future clinical trials, says co-senior author of all four studies, William Schief, PhD, who is also a Scripps Research professor; vice president for antigen design and selection, Infectious Disease Research, at Moderna, Inc.; and executive director of vaccine design at IAVIs Neutralizing Antibody Center.
The HIV vaccine strategy involves stimulating the body to produce mature broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs). bnAbs are among the immune system's key players in fighting HIV, since they can block many variants of the virus. The problem is that bnAbs produced by the human body are rare. The IAVI trial, spearheaded in part by Schief, focused on inducing the immune cells that could eventually evolve into the right bnAbs ones that could protect host cells from multiple HIV strains. These precursor immune cells, known as B cells, were stimulated with the help of a priming immunogen a customized molecule to prime the immune system and elicit responses from the correct precursor cells.
But the primer also requires additional booster immunogens to coax the immune system into producing not just precursor cells, but coveted VRC01-class bnAbs a rare and specific class of antibodies known to neutralize more than 90 percent of diverse HIV strains. Boosters are also needed for the production of BG18 another important bnAb class that binds to sugars on the HIV spike protein. That's where the new studies come in: Researchers developed immunization regimens that could prime either VRC01 or BG18 precursors, and subsequently boost those precursors further down the path toward becoming bnAbs.
The results contained in these papers are deeply exciting and further support the germline-targeting strategy to HIV vaccine development that IAVI and our partners are pursuing, says Mark Feinberg, MD, PhD, president and CEO of IAVI. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Scripps Research and partners to advance further research building on these promising findings.
This groundbreaking science is enabled by collaboration between scientific institutions and funding partners. Without the ongoing, critical support of the Scripps Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD), the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Moderna (the manufacturer of the mRNA used in these studies), this research would not have been possible.
Priming rare antibodies
In the first study, which focused on BG18, Scripps Research scientists collaborated with co-senior authors Shane Crotty, PhD, chief scientific officer at La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and Devin Sok, PhD, former vice president of discovery and innovation at IAVI. Using a priming immunogen, they consistently primed exceptionally rare BG18 precursors in a wild-type animal model.
To confirm they were able to prime the correct precursors, the researchers then teamed up with Andrew Ward, PhD, Scripps Research integrative structural and computational biology professor and co-senior author of the study. Using cryo-EM structural analysis, they validated that the antibodies were indeed part of the BG18 class.
The fact that priming worked well in macaques suggests that it has a good chance of succeeding in humans, says co-first author, Jon Steichen, PhD, an institute investigator in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research.
Steichen was also co-first author on a second study, in which mice were modified to produce a low frequency of BG18 precursors. Scripps Research and IAVI scientists, along with the team of co-senior author Facundo Batista, PhD, associate director and scientific director of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, used priming methods similar to the ones used in the first paper. However, a key difference was that this time, they also administered one of two boost immunogens using RNA technology. This resulted in boosting the primed B cells to adapt to recognize more native-like versions of HIV.
This study showed that we can start to walk the B cells along toward bnAb development, Steichen explains.
Supercharging the immune system into action
For the third study, Schief and his team worked with IAVI scientists, wherein they primed a mouse model with the same immunogen used in the 2022 IAVI clinical trial. This resulted in mice that produced VRC01-class precursor B cells similar to those found in people. But the researchers a
North America Stories
05/07/2024
Since launching a major marketing branding campaign on Super Bowl Sunday this year, the local streaming service Zeam has spent the first half of 2024 working to...
05/07/2024
Birds Camera Solutions, a specialist in cable camera systems for sports broadcasting, has developed the Aerial Green Analysis System in collaboration with Agrow...
05/07/2024
Fishtank (https://fishtank.live), an interactive streaming platform and 24/7 social experiment, marks one million viewers and $3 million in revenues using Livep...
05/07/2024
Vizrt, the leader in real-time graphics and live production for content creators, shares several new senior appointments which aim to enhance customer security,...
05/07/2024
When independent filmmakers Freddie Wong and Matt Arnold approached Bongani Mlambo about their new film, We're All Gonna Die, the Zimbabwean cinematographer...
05/07/2024
Vizrt reinforces security, sustainability and channel business with new senior a...
05/07/2024
Racquet Studios & Panalux Join Forces to Offer Virtual Production Services in Ne...
05/07/2024
What If We Got A.I. All Wrong?
Michael Cioni July 5, 2024
0 Comments
Will A.I. take our jobs? If you work in production and this question has crossed ...
05/07/2024
The Lines of Entertainment Could be Blurring
Andy Marken July 4, 2024
0 Comments
Millions of girls, like from the university mostly. If we could get ...
05/07/2024
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Film Evil Does Not Exist Shot and Graded with Blackmagic...
05/07/2024
By Craig Anderton
You've probably seen ads for packs of MIDI chords that claim to help you write hits that will make your listeners' jaws drop in amaze...
04/07/2024
Amid a hotly contested presidential race and major battles for the control of the U.S. Congress, AdImpact has raised its projections for political ad spending i...
04/07/2024
MwareTV, a leading cloud-based multi-tenant platform provider, has brought Sree Sivanandan on board as VP India and South-East Asia. He will act as consultant t...
04/07/2024
24i, the video streaming platform expert, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sebastian Braun to Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Braun s promotion to CEO e...
04/07/2024
Rohde & Schwarz has provided its R&S PRISMON multiviewer to the 3/24 Channel, 24-hour news channel of Corporacio Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (3Cat). The u...
04/07/2024
Supponor, the world's leading technology provider in virtual advertising for sports, has today announced record deployment figures for its award-winning AI-...
04/07/2024
International production studio, rights business and channel operator, Blue Ant Media, has chosen Blue Lucy's BLAM platform for media supply chain automatio...
04/07/2024
Dejero Smart Blending Technology at the heart of Quality's all-remote multi-sport production, covering 23 sports from multiple venues, in four Emirates, fo...
04/07/2024
Media Stream Wave Uses Blackmagic Design Live Production Workflow for Coachella ...
04/07/2024
Hitomi Broadcast Announces SMPTE ST 2110 Compatibility for MatchBox
Brie Clayton July 3, 2024
0 Comments
IP interface for lip-sync and latency measure...
04/07/2024
DaVinci Resolve Color Grading Tricks I have never talked about before!
Kasia Jarco July 3, 2024
0 Comments
Here I show a couple of advanced coloring t...
04/07/2024
Back to All News
Netflix Presents the Trailer for Elites Final SeasonPlay Video
Play Video
Entertainment
04 July 2024
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard...
04/07/2024
Back to All News
Netflix presents the trailer for Elites final seasonPlay Video
Play Video
Entertainment
04 July 2024
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard...
04/07/2024
GeForce NOW is bringing 22 new games to members this month.
Dive into the four titles available to stream on the cloud gaming service this week to stay cool an...
04/07/2024
Drug-like inhibitor shows promise in preventing flu Scripps Research scientists have developed a potential drug-like molecule that blocks the first stage of typ...
03/07/2024
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about starting each year with th...
03/07/2024
L3Harris is on pace to equip the U.S. Navys F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet aircr...
03/07/2024
BERGEN, Norway Vizrt has announced several new senior appointments focusing on enhancing the company's customer security, experience, and channel business....
03/07/2024
Paramount Globals stock rose early on Weds., July 3 after new reports indicated that David Ellison's Skydance Media had sweetened its offer for Paramount Gl...
03/07/2024
Rising Director Zoe Malhotra Signs with Dictionary Films for Representation in U...
03/07/2024
AdImpact said it has increased its forecast for political ad spending in 2024 to $10.7 billion, from an earlier estimate of $10.2 billion....
03/07/2024
PARIS Citius, Altius, Fortius has traditionally been the motto for the Olympic Games, Latin words for Swifter, Higher, Stronger. In 2021, the motto was offici...
03/07/2024
Lightware Visual Engineering, leading manufacturer of connectivity solutions for the professional integrated systems market and a pioneer in signal management, ...
03/07/2024
At IBC 2024, Simplestream is demonstrating new features and enhancements to its award-winning Channel Studio and Livestream Scheduler products, allowing world-c...
03/07/2024
Radio Televisi n Nacional de Colombia (RTVC), Colombia's national radio and television broadcaster, has chosen DHD SX2 audio production consoles for its ren...
03/07/2024
Hitomi Broadcast, the market leader in audio/video alignment and latency tools, is pleased to announce the official launch of SMPTE ST 2110 compatibility for it...
03/07/2024
A versatile new addition to the Ikegami range of broadcast-quality production equipment, the HDK-X500 HD portable camera system makes its European market debut ...
03/07/2024
Triveni Digital, the industry leader in NEXTGEN TV service delivery and quality assurance solutions, today announced the appointment of Anil Bhardwaj as the com...
03/07/2024
RAYMOND, Maine Longtime sales leader Christine Zuba has retired from Dielectric, concluding an impressive 49-year career that genuinely broke barriers. Michael ...
03/07/2024
SUNRISE, Fla, and CINCINNATI, Ohio. The Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers have signed a multi-year agreement with Scripps Sports to locally broadcast Panthe...
03/07/2024
TNT Sports and the Mountain West Conference (MW) have reached a multi-year agreement for a full slate of live college football games to air exclusively on truTV...
03/07/2024
BELLEVUE, Wash. The 5G industry continues to see strong growth according to new data from 5G Americas and Omdia that shows 185 million 5G connections were added...
03/07/2024
LONDON Simplestream will demonstrate new features and enhancements to its Channel Studio and LiveStream Scheduler at IBC2024, Sept. 13-16, at the Amsterdam RAI ...
03/07/2024
Sisler High School's CREATE Program Uses DaVinci Resolve for 16 Mini Docs fo...
03/07/2024
Sony Electronics' PDT-FP1 5G Portable Data Transmitter, Now Available
Brie Clayton July 2, 2024
0 Comments
New Device Supports Sustained High-Spee...
03/07/2024
Adobe Terms of Use The Real Truth
Brie Clayton July 2, 2024
0 Comments
This video explores the real meaning behind Adobe's Terms of General Use ...
03/07/2024
It's possible to do a full tour of CBC's baseball teams over the 4th of July holiday! Start in Holly Springs or Durham and then swing by Greenville. Che...
03/07/2024
Back to All News
In Brazil, Eddie Murphy is a Soccer Player, a Logistics Assist...