Enhanced Potency of a Broadly Neutralizing HIV-1 Antibody In Vitro Improves Protection against Lentiviral Infection In Vivo

Over the past 5 years, a new generation of highly potent and broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies has been identified. These antibodies can protect against lentiviral infection in nonhuman primates (NHPs), suggesting that passive antibody transfer would prevent HIV-1 transmission in humans. To increase the protective efficacy of suchmonoclonal antibodies, we employed next-generation sequencing, computational bioinformatics, and structure-guided design to enhance the neutralization potency and breadth of VRC01, an antibody that targets the CD4 binding site of the HIV-1 envelope. One variant, VRC07-523, was 5- t