Antibodies can block HIV from causing severe AIDS: Study

With this discovery, the researchers are hopeful of developing an AIDS vaccine very soon.

The latest research study was conducted by a team from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. The research team elaborated that they have been able to separate two counteractive antibodies that can prevent the action of various HIV strains that cause AIDS.

These antibodies aim or target a particular portion of the HIV virus. This fact was never taken into consideration in any of the previous researches done for finding a vaccine. Therefore, the new study results are even more significant.

This portion of the virus is comparatively stable and does not take part in the widespread mutations that have eventually made HIV immune to all the possible antiviral drugs and vaccines developed in the past.

Dr. Seth F. Berkley, president and chief executive of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, was quoted as saying, “This is opening up a whole new area of science.”

PG9 and PG16 antibodies hold the key
For the study purposes, researchers took into account blood samples taken from more than 1,800 people residing in Thailand, Australia and Africa.

All these people had been infected with HIV for at least three years. However, the infection had not reached the stage where it could be termed a severe disease. People like these have a very high probability of producing antibodies that hinder the multiplication of the virus.

The samples that were most resistant to the infection were analysed by the research team from the Monogram Biosciences in South San Francisco. After this, a team from Theraclone Sciences in Seattle separated the antibodies accountable for this resistance.

Finally, two antibodies named PG9 and PG16 were segregated from an African patient. These antibodies successfully hindered the activity of almost three-quarters of the 162 different strains of HIV that were tested against them.

Immunologist Dennis Burton of Scripps and his colleagues then explained that these antibodies actually go and get attached to the surface of the two proteins called gp120 and gp41 thereby preventing them from helping the HIV virus attack the cells.

Detailed study required
However, a much more detailed analysis needs to be done before a vaccine is produced. One way is that the antibodies themselves are utilised for the treatment of patients who have developed severe AIDS.

But scientists are hoping that a much better option would be to discover molecules that can rouse the body to produce neutralizing antibodies. These molecules can prove to be very helpful in making a vaccine that can be useful.

No successful vaccine for HIV yet
HIV affects almost 33 million people across the globe. As per statistics released by the World Health Organisation (WHO), around 25 million people have lost their lives because of AIDS.

There have been innumerable experiments to develop a vaccine that can work against the HIV, but with no great success. One of the recent failures was the experimental trial done in 2007, wherein the vaccine that was developed actually made people more prone to infection.

The new study findings have been published in the journal Science.