CROI 2022: Broadly neutralising antibody treatment: is pre-existing resistance its Achilles heel?

Last week’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2022) heard about two early phase I studies in which people with HIV who had unsuppressed viral loads were given combinations of broadly neutralising antibodies (bNAbs) instead of standard antiretroviral therapy (ART).

The two studies only included ten people in total. One study gave participants a combination of three antibodies and the other study two long-acting ones. Between the two studies, three participants were able to achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load for periods of several months on bNAb treatment alone. However, six others (one was lost to follow-up) saw their viral loads initially decline, but return to baseline level after two to four weeks.

In both studies, the crucial predictor of virological failure was whether people had HIV with pre-existing resistance to one or more of the bNAbs. The results suggest that, in the absence of bNAbs and combinations of bNAbs that are even broader in their ability to neutralise many different strains of HIV, resistance tests will be required to determine who may be able to benefit from them.

Read the full story at Aidsmap.

All Aidsmap reports from CROI 2022.

SEE ALSO:

• HIV i-Base: CROI 2022: Strategies to suppress viral load off-ART with 3BNC117, 10-1074 and other bNAbs