Posts
On Wednesday at the 19th
International AIDS Conference, the director of the Duke University School of
Medicine’s Human Vaccine Institute reported on the discovery of a series of
“Achilles heels” on the surface of HIV - developments that have reignited the
search for an AIDS vaccine.
“We know the face of the enemy now,”
Bart Haynes said. “We have some real clues about how to approach the problem.”
He detailed several key challenges that have made developing a vaccine so
difficult.
Because HIV is a retrovirus, Haynes
said, it does not simply infect the body: It inserts itself into a cell’s
genome. “An HIV vaccine must totally prevent infection,” he said. “Once
infection occurs, the virus inserts into the genome, and the immune system
can’t kill it.”
In addition, though the body tries to
defend itself, it cannot keep up with rapid pace at which HIV mutates. To be
effective, an HIV vaccine would have to stimulate the production of broadly
neutralizing antibodies to attack the virus regardless of its mutations.
Haynes said scientists have
discovered potential weak points on HIV that appear to stay the same, even as
the virus mutates. These could become the targets for vaccines.
Another issue, according to Wayne
Koff, chief scientific officer of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, is
HIV’s ability to hide itself and confuse the immune system. This raises the
risk that a vaccinated person’s body would produce the proper antibodies, but
that these would be unrecognized by the immune system and marked for
elimination.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
