RESEARCH ARTICLE
Fcgbp – A Potential Viral Trap in RV144
Jacquelyn L Schwartz*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2014Volume: 8
First Page: 21
Last Page: 24
Publisher ID: TOAIDJ-8-21
DOI: 10.2174/1874613601408010021
Article History:
Received Date: 25/4/2013Revision Received Date: 8/5/2014
Acceptance Date: 10/7/2014
Electronic publication date: 8/9/2014
Collection year: 2014
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Years of extensive research have yielded much knowledge in many aspects of HIV-1 infection, treatments, and education. However, without a vaccine, the number of people infected worldwide continues to grow. The partial success of the Thai RV144 vaccine trial provides hope that a method of protection is indeed possible. Understanding the mechanism behind the protection is critical if we hope to achieve our goal of inhibiting new infections of HIV-1. We hypothesize that the Fc of IgG binding protein (Fcgbp) is associated with the protection observed in the RV144 vaccine trial. It has the ability to trap viral-antibody complexes in the mucosa by binding the Fc of IgG to Fcgbp. This property could be used in the form of a microbicide containing antibodies to a variety of HIV-1 epitopes to prevent sexual transmission of HIV-1. The aim of this paper is to stimulate further research into Fcgbp and its role in innate immunity.
