For decades, scientists have vigorously searched for a cure for the AIDS virus. Recent research just may have uncovered a significant key to developing that long-awaited vaccine. Scientists have discovered two key antibodies that seem to prevent the AIDS virus from mutating and spreading through out the body.
The AIDS virus has claimed millions of lives around the world. According to the World Health Organization, 33 million people currently are infected with HIV. While search efforts for an AIDS cure are abundant, several previous stabs at developing a vaccine proved to be non-effective.
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, a non-profit organization, is funding the efforts to develop a vaccine and kicked off their effort in 2006, called Protocol G. Protocol G utilizes blood gathered from HIV patients in developing countries, to help pinpoint antibodies that could neutralize strains of the AIDS virus. The Scripps Research Institute through this initiative, discovered two critical antibodies, which naturally fight against the spread of the AIDS virus. During the study, released recently in the journal Science, researchers not only discovered two vital antibodies, but also discovered a new part of the virus the antibodies attack. This discovery may lead to a new technique for the creation of a vaccine.
For the study, researchers gathered blood from 1,800 HIV patients who had suffered from the virus, without exhibiting symptoms for at least three years. The participants were mainly from Africa, but also involved HIV patients from Thailand, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The team pinpointed those who had not exhibited HIV signs, though suffering from the virus for at least three years, because these patients many times produce natural antibodies in their blood, which fight against almost all strains of HIV around the world. Dennis Button, a scientist at the Scripps Research Institute, the key player in the new research said, “We said if we want broadly neutralizing antibodies, we should look for people, infected individuals, who are making them,” He added, “The key thing about the antibodies we’ve found is that they’re more potent than previous ones and that’s great for a vaccine.”
Once the blood was gathered from the HIV patients, the samples were shipped back to a team with the Monogram Bioscience laboratories in San Francisco, where researchers studied the samples to determine which antibodies lead to more resistance to the virus. The team had developed a process that caused the enzyme embedded in the virus to glow when it entered a cell. If the researchers did not see a glow when performing the process, it was a signal the patient’s natural antibodies had fought off the virus.
Once the samples containing antibodies that fought off the HIV virus were identified, they were shipped to the Theraclone Sciences, in order to isolate the antibodies. Burton, said “If you want to make a vaccine that works, it has to protect against not just one, but most of the strains that are out there.” The team at Theraclone Sciences isolated two antibodies, which were able to block against three-quarters of the different strains of HIV tested against the antibodies. The two antibodies were recognized in the blood of an African HIV patient.
While the new findings do not create an overnight cure for AIDS, it does help scientists with new options for treatment and a potential vaccine. The hope is for a vaccine that will encourage a person’s immune system to fight the virus more vigorously by producing its own antibodies.
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