HIV: BROADLY NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODY SHOWS PROMISE AS TREATMENT FOR HIV

Scientists reported on Wednesday that treating HIV with an antibody can reduce the levels of the virus in the body at least temporarily. This method called passive immunization involves infusing antibodies into a person's blood.

Director of US National Institute in Allergy and Infectious Disease in Bethesda Maryland says this is an early study with impressive results.

29 people in the United States and Germany were tested with different doses of an HIV antibody called 3BNC117.
Seventeen of the participants had HIV and 15 were not taking antiretroviral (ARV) at the time of study.

An infusion of the highest dose of antibody to 8 volunteers cut the amount of the virus in their blood by between 8 and 250 times in 28 days. However, more work needs to be done to determine if this is practical for clinical use and can produce longer lasting effects.

Previous studies didnot work well in human beings but in mice and monkeys cause the antibodies used in earlier clinical trials were of older generation that could not neutralize many different strains of HIV.

The 3BNC117 antibody however belongs to the class of broadly neutralizing antibodies which researchers have spent a decade to find.