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Novel antibody therapy suppresses viral load in phase I HIV trial
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Recent data suggest that treatment using a novel CD4 binding site antibody cloned from a viremic controller could suppress viral load among HIV patients.
“A fraction of HIV-1-infected individuals develop potent neutralizing serologic activity against diverse viral isolates,” the researchers wrote. “However, potent anti-HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) are highly somatically mutated and many carry other uncommon features such as insertions, deletions, or long complementary determining regions.
“In view of the efficacy of passive bNAb administration in hu-mice and macaques, it has been suggested that bNAbs should be administered passively, or by viral vectors for prevention and immunotherapy.”
Marina Caskey
Marina Caskey, MD, Florian Klein, MD, and Michel C. Nussenzweig, MD, PhD, each of Rockefeller University, and colleagues used a standard 3+3 phase I trial design for the first human trial of the 3BNC117 antibody. Participants with HIV (n = 17) and without (n = 12) received a single intravenous infusion of the antibody at four dose levels: 1 mg/kg, 3 mg/kg, 10 mg/kg and 30 mg/kg. After administration, participants were monitored for viremia and adverse events for 56 days.
Florian Klein
Infusion with 3BNC117 was well tolerated among participants, and demonstrated favorable pharmacokinetics. At the highest dosage, viral load among those with HIV was reduced by 0.8 log10 to 2.5 log10 with viremia suppressed for 28 days. Emergence of viral strains resistant to the bNAb was variable, the researchers wrote, as some participants remained sensitive to the treatment for as long as 28 days.
“We conclude that, as a single agent, 3BNC117 is safe and effective in reducing HIV-1 viremia, and that immunotherapy should be explored as a new modality for HIV-1 prevention, therapy and cure,” the researchers wrote. —by Dave Muoio
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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