Will HIV eventually go the way of smallpox and polio? Earlier this month, scientists at the National Institute of Health (NIH) announced their discovery of three new HIV antibodies, the most powerful of which neutralizes 91% of all HIV strains. These are the strongest antibodies yet found, and they could hold the key to developing a vaccine to AIDS.HIV antibodies themselves aren’t rare, and scientists regularly find ones that are effective against a few different strains. But until last year, the most powerful antibody found only protected against about 40% of strains. New techniques for rapidly identifying antibodies have changed this, and sparked an unprecedented number of breakthroughs: in the past year, about half a dozen broadly neutralizing antibodies have been identified. These new antibodies are extremely potent (they neutralize the virus at low blood concentrations) and protect against many more strains of HIV. The research was published as two separate papers in Science.
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