#monkey

A new HIV vaccine prompts powerful antibody response in animals.

Researchers have devised a means of injecting an antiretroviral under the skin that hardens into a dissolvable and removable implant.

Beginning six months of treatment within two days following infection prevented viral rebound in at least some animals in a recent study.

Researchers were also able to make the first-ever estimate of the level of antibodies needed for protection against the virus.

Researchers have found a way of stabilizing a shape-shifting viral protein so as to promote a greater antibody response.

Researchers have devised a means of injecting an antiretroviral under the skin that hardens into a dissolvable and removable implant.

An antibody treatment plus an immune-stimulating agent delayed viral rebound in primates infected with HIV-like virus.

Today, with better understanding of the complex task at hand, cure researchers are investigating multiple avenues and taking the long view.

The “kick-and-kill” strategy—waking up latently infected immune cells so as to kill them—did not reduce participants’ viral DNA.

This disappointment highlights the challenge of translating animal research into human trials.

Published results have updated preliminary findings presented at a previous conference.

NIH researchers have prompted animals to develop broadly neutralizing antibodies against the virus; an early human trial is in the works.

Merck’s investigational antiretroviral could one day be dosed only weekly among HIV-negative humans.

Scientists tested the effects of the broadly neutralizing antibody PGT121 and the immune-stimulating agent GS-9620 in monkeys.

Scientists succeeded in editing the animals’ stem cells to resist an HIV-like virus and ultimately shrink their viral reservoir.

This sets the stage for an early human trial of such antibody injections for use as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV.