Scientists uncover an important clue to the conundrum of mother-to-child HIV transmission
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 April 2 in
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 are able to escape broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs)--an emerging type of treatment that can be used to block a wide range of HIV strains. The scientists also found that these HIV variants tend to contain key genetic signatures.