Scientists at Georgia State University have developed a new antibody therapy that can target a wide array of HIV-1 strains. The antibodies were developed from antibody genes in llama DNA. Camelids (camel-like organisms—like llamas and alpacas) have nimbler antibodies that more effectively recognize and neutralize HIV infections. According to Jianliang Xu, the lead researcher of this project, HIV escapes the bulky antibodies in our body, which fail to find and attack the viral surface. However, the newly developed antibodies, called nanobodies, can easily target HIV.
Present treatment against HIV infection
Since the breakout of AIDS and HIV in the 80s, it has sprawled out into the world and has claimed around 40 to 50 million lives. There is still no vaccine or an effective cure against HIV infection, though a handful of people have been cured of the disease under special circumstances. The best bet is the lifelong antiretroviral treatment or ART, which comes with its own set of side effects, such as depression, deposition of cholesterol, weight gain, etc. If approved in the future, nanobodies can offer a new method of treating HIV, perhaps without the fallacies of ART.
How can nanobodies help?
Nanobodies are synthetically prepared antibody fragments ten times smaller than conventional antibodies. Usually, human antibodies have two chains in pairs— light and heavy. Nanobodies are derived from flexible, Y-shaped antibodies that lack light chains. Nanobodies are more adept at targeting HIV, neutralizing around 96% of a diverse panel of HIV-1 strains. If combined with broadly neutralizing antibodies, which are also adept at neutralizing HIV-1 strains, the potency of the therapy increases.
The nanobodies work by mimicking the recognition of the CD4 receptor, a significant factor in HIV infections.
How did Xu develop the nanobodies?
Xu and his team immunized a llama 13 times and monitored its serum for the presence of antibodies targeted against HIV for 271 days. When the nanobodies were engineered using a triple tandem format, a process in which DNA repeats are used, the resulting nanobodies showed huge success in neutralizing different HIV strains.
Future of nanobody-based therapy for HIV infection
Although in its early days, nanobodies show much promise with unprecedented success in combating HIV infection. The current roadmap of the project is to combine the nanobodies derived from llamas with different broadly neutralizing antibodies to see if 100% neutralization can be achieved.
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