In an advance for HIV vaccine research, a South African- United States scientific team has discovered how the immune system makes a powerful antibody that blocks HIV infection of cells by targeting a site on the virus called V1V2, reports [s]Infection Control Today[/s]. The study was published by [s]Nature[/s] this week.
[s]Infection Control Today[/s] writes that many researchers believe that if a vaccine could elicit potent antibodies to a specific conserved site in the V1V2 region, one of a handful of sites that remains constant on the fast-mutating virus, then the vaccine could protect people from HIV infection. Analyses of the results of a clinical trial of the only experimental HIV vaccine to date to have modest success in people suggest that antibodies to sites within V1V2 were protective. The new findings point the way toward a potentially more effective vaccine that would generate V1V2-directed HIV neutralising antibodies.
The researchers, who included the head of HIV virology at the [b]National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), Prof Lynne Morris[/b], identified 12 closely related broadly neutralising antibodies in a South African patient, reports Business Day. They traced how they evolved over time to become so effective and figured out how to duplicate them in the laboratory. The antibodies were isolated from a volunteer known only as CAP256 to protect her identity, and tracked back in time over four years. Few research groups had access to such long time-series of blood samples, which were housed by the [b]Centre for AIDS Research in Africa (Caprisa)[/b]. Caprisa brings together scientists from the [b]NICD, and the universities of the Witwatersrand, Cape Town and Colombia[/b].
Sustained research programmes will eventually lead scientists to develop a vaccine for the prevention and treatment of HIV, said [b]Health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi[/b] in a [s]News24[/s] report.He was addressing reporters in Johannesburg after the announcement of the discovery. ‘I think we are a step closer to the day when we will have a viable vaccine. This announcement is welcomed with pride by the Department of Health.’
Prof Salim Abdool Karim, president of the SA Medical Research Council is reported on [s]IoL[/s] as saying that it was a ‘breakthrough, albeit a small one’. ‘The big difference is that for the first time, we have not just studied the antibodies, but have been able to make them in the laboratory. We could never clone them before.’
[link url=http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/news/2014/03/study-of-antibody-evolution-charts-course-toward-hiv-vaccine.aspx]Full Infection Control Today report[/link]
[link url=http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/health/2014/03/04/local-scientists-step-close-to-developing-vaccine-against-hiv]Full Business Day report[/link]
[link url=http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/HIV-vaccine-on-the-way-Motsoaledi-20140303]Full News24 report[/link]
[link url=http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/news/antibodies-stir-hopes-for-hiv-vaccine-1.1655799#.UxWVpC70nlQ]Full IoL report[/link]
[link url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13036.html]Nature abstract[/link]