Certain Anti-Bodies Neutralize AIDS, May Boost Vaccine Research

There is new hope for an AIDS vaccine.

According to Science News, three previously unknown human antibodies have been discovered. These antibodies may be made of tough enough stuff to build a vaccine, unlike every antibody discovered since the mid-1990s when HIV antibodies were first found.

The findings were published online yesterday, July 8, 2010, in two Science papers, less than a year after another team of researchers discovered two antibodies that also neutralized and bound HIV. These antibodies are known as the PG9 and PG16 antibodies.

Nearly everyone infected with HIV makes antibodies to combat it. The new antibodies, VRC01 and VRC02, neutralize 91 percent of strains while VCR03 neutralizes 57 percent, large steps up from the PG antibodies, which neutralized 79 and 73 percent, respectively.

These new discoveries may be the key in developing an AIDS vaccine as they are a huge contribution to the research.

“The path forward isn’t as clear as we’d like it to be, but we are turning a corner, I think,” commented David Montefiori, a viral immunologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.. He was not involved in the research.

Scientists believe the key to the vaccine is making one that will stimulate the immune system’s response by creating a vaccine that will make it reproduce its own antibodies. The biggest obstacle, perhaps, to creating a vaccine is the ability of HIV to mutate.

VRC01 has only been discovered in one individual. Scientists need proof that it exists in others before progressing with a vaccine.