Researchers detect new clues to eliminate infant HIV infections

Each year over 150,000 infants worldwide are infected with HIV in the womb, at birth, or through breastfeeding. Why transmission occurs in some cases but not others has long been a mystery, but now a team led by Weill Cornell Medicine and Duke University scientists has uncovered an important clue, with implications for how to eliminate infant HIV infections.

In a study published in the medical journal PLoS Pathogens, the researchers found evidence linking mother-to-child transmission of HIV to rare variants of the virus in the mother’s blood that is able to escape broadly neutralising antibodies (bnAbs) an emerging type of treatment that can be used to block a wide range of HIV strains. They also found that these HIV variants tend to contain key genetic signatures. It provide a possible way to predict whether mother-to-infant transmission of HIV will occur and point the way towards approaches that can help prevent that, the researchers said. “Our findings suggest vaccines or treatments for HIV-infected pregnant and nursing women should be designed to prevent the development of these resistant variants to reduce the chance of HIV transmission to the child,” said senior author Dr Sallie Permar, chair of paediatrics and Nancy C. Paduano, Professor in Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and paediatrician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. WITH ANI INPUTS