Preclinical Characterization of Humoral Immune Responses

Recent preclinical studies have demonstrated the use of properly folded trimeric HIV-1 envelope proteins in eliciting broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). These bNAbs target highly conserved sites on the envelope glycoprotein of HIV which consists of trimeric units of non-covalently associated surface subunit, gp120, and transmembrane subunit, gp41. Understanding the type of antibody responses generated by such envelope proteins may be important for the development of an effective HIV-1 vaccine.