Abstract

The design of a human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) immunogen that can induce broadly reactive neutralizing antibodies is a major goal of HIV-1 vaccine development. Although rare human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) exist that broadly neutralize HIV-1, HIV-1 envelope immunogens do not induce these antibody specificities. Here we demonstrate that the two most broadly reactive HIV-1 envelope gp41 human mAbs, 2F5 and 4E10, are polyspecific autoantibodies reactive with the phospholipid cardiolipin. Thus, current HIV-1 vaccines may not induce these types of antibodies because of autoantigen mimicry of the conserved membrane-proximal epitopes of the virus. These results may have important implications for generating effective neutralizing antibody responses by using HIV-1 vaccines.