Abstract

Neutralizing antibody titers have been correlated with protection following vaccination against many viral pathogens. The logical target of protective antibody responses elicited by potential HIV vaccines should be the viral Env spike on the surface of the virion. However, the potency and titers of neutralizing antibodies that arise during HIV infection are generally discouragingly low and the antibodies that do arise recognize mainly autologous virus. This is thought to be a result of a combination of immunodominance of hypervariable regions of the Env protein that can easily escape neutralization, antibody reactivity to gp160

Keywords: hiv, siv, glycosylation, env, neutralizing antibody