Overview

• Newborn primates receiving a single AAV-based gene therapy at birth sustained broadly neutralizing HIV antibody expression and protection for three to four years without booster shots.
• The neonatal immune window was key to tolerance, with treatments after eight weeks provoking rejection unless fetuses had prior antibody exposure in utero.
• Researchers used an adeno-associated virus vector to deliver genes to muscle cells, effectively turning them into long-term factories for HIV-neutralizing antibodies.
• A one-time injection at birth could dramatically reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission in regions with limited healthcare access by providing durable protection during breastfeeding.
• Next steps focus on initiating human feasibility trials and overcoming hurdles of HIV strain diversity, interspecies immune differences, and the high cost of AAV therapies.