N Engl J Med 2021 03;384(11):1003-1014
From the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (L.C., P.B.G., M.J., S.T.K., A.C.C., E.R., Y.H., K.E.M., J. Hural, M.J.M.E., C.B., S.T., N.E., A.K.R., N.K., D.J.D., J.G.K., G.G.), and the Departments of Global Health, Microbiology, and Medicine, University of Washington (J.I.M.), Seattle; the Department of Surgery and Duke Human Vaccine Institute, Duke University Medical Center (D.C.M.), and FHI 360 (N.S., P.A.), Durham, and the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Disease, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (M.S.C.) - both in North Carolina; the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory Service (L.M.) and the Antibody Immunity Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences (L.M.), and the Perinatal HIV Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences (F.L., E.M.L., S.T.), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, Department of Medicine and Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (C.O.), and the Division of Medical Virology (C.W.), University of Cape Town, Cape Town, the School of Health Systems and Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria (S.T.), and the South African Medical Research Council, Tygerberg (G.G.) - all in South Africa; the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory University, Atlanta (S.E.); the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences Clinical Trials Research Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe (N.M.M., P.G.M.); Servicio de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Tropicales, Hospital Nacional Dos de Mayo (P.G.), Asociación Civil Via Libre (R.C.), Asociación Civil Impacta Salud y Educación (J.R.L.), and Centro de Investigaciones Tecnológicas, Biomédicas y Medioambientales, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (J.S.), Lima, and Association Civil Selva Amazónica, Clinical Research Site, Iquitos (J. Hinojosa) - both in Peru; the Infectious Diseases Division, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (I.F.); the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York (M.E.S.); Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute, Gaborone, Botswana (J.M.); Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston (L.R.B.); and the Vaccine Research Program, Division of AIDS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Rockville (M.M.G.L.), the Prevention Sciences Program, Division of AIDS (D.N.B.), and the Vaccine Research Center (J.E.L., J.R.M.), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, Bethesda, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore (E.P.-M.) - all in Maryland.
Background: Whether a broadly neutralizing antibody (bnAb) can be used to prevent human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) acquisition is unclear.
Methods: We enrolled at-risk cisgender men and transgender persons in the Americas and Europe in the HVTN 704/HPTN 085 trial and at-risk women in sub-Saharan Africa in the HVTN 703/HPTN 081 trial. Participants were randomly assigned to receive, every 8 weeks, infusions of a bnAb (VRC01) at a dose of either 10 or 30 mg per kilogram (low-dose group and high-dose group, respectively) or placebo, for 10 infusions in total. Read More