The production of certain antibodies could explain the partial success of an HIV-vaccine trial and the failure of another.
In 2009, researchers reported that an experimental HIV vaccine had reduced infection risk by 31%, the only HIV vaccine ever shown to be effective. Two teams have now compared the immune responses of people in that trial, known as RV144, with those of participants in a different trial, VAX003, in which a vaccine did not prevent infection. Georgia Tomaras at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and her colleagues found that volunteers in the RV144 trial produced a greater response, in terms of IgG3 antibodies, which recognize a portion of HIV's outer shell, than people in the unsuccessful trial ...
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