Health
Progress on HIV vaccine?
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 5, 2007
Researchers have generated an atomic-level picture of a key portion of an HIV surface protein as it looks when bound to an infection-fighting antibody. This finding could prove an important step in formulating an effective AIDS vaccine, they said.
Unlike much of the constantly mutating virus, the protein component portrayed is stable and appears vulnerable to attack from the antibody known as b12 that can broadly neutralize HIV. The finding reveals a gap in HIV's armor, said National Institutes of Health Director Elias A. Zerhouni, MD.
Scientists long had sought a broadly neutralizing antibody such as b12 by studying the blood of people whose immune systems appear to hold the virus at bay for long periods of time.
The quest for a vaccine had been stymied by the rapid mutations of HIV and the fact that the virus is surrounded by a nearly impenetrable sugar cloak that prevents antibodies from blocking the proteins the virus uses to latch onto a cell and infect it.
The new finding was published in the Feb. 15 Nature.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/03/05/hlbf0305.htm.
