In the U.S. alone, there are over one million individuals living with HIV and 1 in 7 of them don’t know they are infected. As antimicrobial resistance is a growing global public health threat, researchers are actively taking steps to minimize the emergence and spread of HIV drug resistance—as well as treating current HIV therapy-resistant patients. Now, a new collaborative study led by investigators at the Yale School of Medicine describes how the biologic drug ibalizumab, a humanized IgG4 monoclonal antibody, was found to block the entry of HIV-1 through noncompetitive binding to CD4 in individuals with advanced, drug-resistant HIV infection. Findings from the new study—published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine through an article titled “ Phase 3 Study of Ibalizumab for Multidrug-Resistant HIV-1 ”—showed that when used in combination with existing HIV medications, ibalizumab use is a promising strategy for patients who have ...
Original Article: HIV Biologic Drug Reduces Viral Load While Boosting Immunity