Monoclonal Antibodies Display Mysterious Synergy.(Brief Article)

2001 DEC 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers in the United States and Europe have confirmed that several HIV specific monoclonal antibodies have synergistic effects in combination.

"Several reports have described the existence of synergy between neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)," according to Michael B. Zwick and colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and the Institute for Applied Microbiology at Vienna's University of Agriculture. "Neutralization synergy of these MAbs, however, has not been studied extensively, and the mechanism of synergy remains unclear."

While the information provided in their study may prove useful in the development of HIV vaccines, Zwick and associates say that the synergistic mechanisms of these MAbs is still poorly understood.

The researchers focused on synergistic relationships between four MAbs - b12, 2G12, 2F5, and 4E10. Although the synergy between antibody pairs resulted in relatively modest two- to fourfold neutralization augmentation, combining three or four antibodies magnified their potency by tenfold, they said.

Binding of b12 and 2G12 to oligomeric envelope glycoproteins was evaluated with flow cytometry. However, no cooperative binding mechanisms were seen with this antibody pair, study data showed.

None of the antibody combinations displayed ...