Zackary Park

BI483 T/Th 2
What I Learned from Reading the Study
A rhesus macaque, called Mm333, had an abnormally high neutralizing antibody response to
SIVmac239. Whereas SIVmac239 is normally resistant to antibody-mediated neutralization, the
neutralizing response of Mm333 plasma against SIVmac239 was about 10-times more effective
than other SIVmac239-infected macaques. Amidst having produced a strong neutralizing
antibody response, Mm333 did not remove or control the SIVmac239 infection, which suggests
eventual evasion of the virus from the neutralizing antibody responses. The destruction of CD4positive T helper cells may have prevented further development and evolution of the antibody
response. A single amino acid replacement at three specific sites resulted in the virus to respond
rapidly to the neutralizing antibody responses; the single amino acid changes led to antigenic
escape, which occurs when a virus alters its surface proteins to escape a host immune response.

Zackary Park
BI483 T/Th 2
Works Cited
Sate, S., E. Yuste, W. A. Lauer, E. H. Chang, J. S. Morgan, J. G. Bixby, J. D. Lifson, R. C.
Desrosiers, and W. E. Johnson. Potent Antibody-Mediated Neutralization and Evolution
of Antigenic Escape Variants of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Strain SIVmac239 in
Vivo. Journal of Virology 82.19 (2008): 9739-752. Web. 42 Jan. 2016.