Anti-Carbohydrate HIV Vaccine Design

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 glycan-associated epitopes of these bNAbs and discuss how this insight may translate into the engineering of a carbohydrate-based HIV vaccine.