Potent cross-group neutralization of primary human immunodeficiency virus isolates with monoclonal antibodies--implications for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome vaccine.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is phylogenetically classified into groups and clades (or subtypes). Human neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (nMAbs), originally isolated from individuals infected with HIV-1 group M-clade B, neutralized not only primary HIV-1 clade B isolates in vitro but also primary isolates of other group M clades (A, C, D, E, and F). This corrected the previously held notion that primary HIV-1 isolates are resistant to neutralizing antibodies. Here we show that anti-HIV-1 group M-clade B nMAbs potently neutralized primary isolates of the phylogenetically distant HIV-1 group O. We and others have previously shown that passive immunization with human nMAbs protected adult or neonatal primates against infection with simian-human immunodeficiency virus strains encoding HIV-1 group M-clade B envelope genes. The in vitro cross-group neutralization shown here underscores the broad potential of these nMAbs against divergent virus variants and the relevance of their epitopes in the design of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome vaccines.