HIV-fighting antibodies may better combat virus in infants

A new study may have advanced the preventative efforts to combat the transmission of HIV from mother to child, according to research published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Researchers are currently working towards training part of the immune system of newborns within a few hours of birth, which could help the infant fight of the sexually transmitted disease (STD). When an infant is born to a mother with HIV, the placenta contains certain antibodies at birth that can neutralize the virus' cells.

Recently, the team used three groups of baby monkeys - those that received a higher amount of antibodies from their mothers, animals that were given simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) antibodies and those that received HIV-like antibodies. Each group was then exposed to SHIV, which is a hybrid infection that allows for positive HIV testing.

Because their bodies contained higher levels of neutralizing compounds, the third group of monkey were best protected against SHIV.

Nancy Haigwood, lead author of the research, stated that these findings show that "boosting the body's HIV antibodies by a time-honored method of passive transfer that would use new HIV-specific human monoclonal antibodies may be a strategy for reducing infection levels." She concluded that this treatment could "limit the levels of infection in children, which would greatly reduce suffering and extend lives."