Cure for HIV/AIDS in under research all over the world at various levels and PlantForm Corporation is making an advance in the development of innovative antibody treatments for treating the disease. The University of Wisconsin-Madison and Université de Montréal are in collaboration with PlantForm and they have recently gotten the support from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The scientists and researchers working in the field for curing HIV have received a $684,196 grant from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for a five-year project focused on protecting human bloodstreams from HIV-1 infection. The aim is to find a way to stop the virus from entering human blood and thereby stopping HIV/AIDS from spreading.
HIV Antibody Research for Finding a Cure
PlantForm is using its plant-based vivoXPRESS® manufacturing platform for providing anti-HIV antibodies for the project. The research for finding a possible cure for HIV and AIDS is led by Dr. David T. Evans (UW-Madison AIDS Vaccine Research Laboratory), Dr. Andrés Finzi (Centre de Recherche du CHUM and Université de Montréal), and Dr. John Kappes (University of Alabama).
The researchers of this project will be investigating the basic viral and cellular factors governing the elimination of HIV-infected cells. It will take place through antibody-dependent cell-mediated toxicity (ADCC) and also develop a high-throughput assay suitable for measuring ADCC which could be considered a sign of protection against infection. If the level of ADCC is low enough, HIV/AIDS can be stopped from entering the human bloodstreams of a healthy person.
Stopping the Virus from entering Human Body
Dr. Don Stewart, PlantForm CEO said that “We’re very pleased to contribute to ground-breaking work that is providing new tools and knowledge that we need to cure HIV by manipulating immune responses and harnessing the killing power of antibodies.”
The method has found to be effective previously as mammalian-derived antibodies against diverse strains of HIV. PlantForm is now working on creating antibodies than can prevent the HIV infection by stopping the virus from entering into human body CD4+ lymphocytes through disrupting its ways.
