Anti-Carbohydrate HIV Vaccine Design

R. Pantophlet (ed.), HIV Glycans in Infection and Immunity, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-8872-9_6, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014 Abstract HIV has evolved a number of strong defense mechanisms, including extensive glycosylation of its surface envelope glycoprotein, to evade host immune responses. Nevertheless, the discovery of a series of glycan-dependent broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) from HIV-infected individuals suggests that HIV’s “glycan shield” also represents a possible Achilles’ heel and thus an attractive target for vaccine design. In this chapter, we review current understanding of the glycanassociated epitopes of these bNAbs and discuss how this insight may translate into the engineering of a carbohydrate-based HIV vaccine.