Patent ID: 7037497

Claim:
A method of reducing HIV-1 viral load in an HIV-1 infected subject which comprises administering to the subject solely after viral steady state is reached an effective viral load-reducing amount of an IgG monoclonal antibody which (a) binds to a CCR5 chemokine receptor, (b) inhibits binding of HIV-1 JR-FL gp120/sCD4 complex to a CCR5 receptor on the surface of a CD4 − CCR5 + cell, and (c) inhibits fusion of HIV-1 to a CD4 + CCR5 + cell, so as to thereby reduce the subject's HIV 1 viral load to 50% or less of the subject's viral load prior to administration of any of the antibody to the subject, wherein the monoclonal antibody is PA14 produced by the hybridoma cell line designated PA14 (ATCC Accession No. HB-12610) or an antibody that cross-competes with monoclonal antibody PA14 for binding to the CCR5 receptor.