HIV-1 vaccine antibody induction against a variable region of HIV-1: A possible link to protective immunity?

Evaluation of: Liao H, Bonsignori M, Alam M et al. Vaccine induction of antibodies against a structurally heterogeneous site of immune pressure within HIV-1 envelope protein variable regions 1 and 2. Immunity 38, 176-186 (2013). In 2009, results from the Phase III HIV-1 vaccine clinical trial RV144 applying a prime/boost regimen with a canarypox vaccine vector ALVAC-HIV plus the AIDSVAX B/E subunit envelope vaccine conducted in Thailand were reported. The priming canarypox vector carried the HIV-1 vaccine genes gp120 linked to the transmembrane-anchoring portion of subtype B gp41, HIV-1 Gag and protease; the boosting vaccine was composed of clades B and E of HIV-1 gp120. A 31.2% vaccine efficacy could be seen in this trial, an encouraging result in HIV-1 vaccine research that had been previously plagued with little clinical efficacy. In this paper, results from tests of four monoclonal antibodies isolated from RV144 vaccinees are reported. The antibodies recognize a certain HIV-1 envelope residue (169), neutralize laboratory-adapted HIV-1 strains and mediate killing of CD4⁺ cells infected with HIV-1 laboratory isolates. Crystal structure analysis suggests that the recognized HIV-1 envelope epitope can exist in different conformations. It is thought that the immune pressure elicited by the monoclonal antibodies targets a HIV-1 envelope region with variable sequence structure.