Purpose of review: Increased body of evidence gathered over time indicate that antibodies are capable of many inhibitory mechanisms, virus neutralization being just one of them. Nonneutralizing antibodyactivities interfering with HIV replication can also lead to a decrease in viral load and even in-vivo protection.
Recent findings: It was previously believed that neutralizing antibodies can achieve sterilizing protection mainly by using their neutralization capacities against the infecting virus directly at the portal of virus entry. Recent findings show that protection can be obtained by neutralizing antibodiesat distal sites of virus challenge. In this case, foci of virus infection that escaped from initial inhibition of virus are eliminated presumably by additional nonneutralizing antibody activities. These data inexorably strengthen the diverse functions of antibodies and broaden their role as antiviral mediator.
Summary: The review summarizes the current knowledge and the difficulties to encompass the numerous functions of antibodies. A complete understanding of the various facets of antibody functions is required to efficiently induce them via next-generation vaccine design.