October 25, 2012

In Potential Vaccine Breakthrough, Antibody Response Outwits HIV

A new discovery could prove a major stepping-stone toward developing an effective HIV vaccine. In South Africa, two women’s immune systems reacted to changes in  HIV cells by producing potent “broadly neutralizing antibodies” that could kill 88 percent of HIV found throughout the world. The study, published October 24 in Nature Medicine and highlighted in a news release by the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, was conducted by the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) consortium. The researchers found that, after infection, the two women’s immune systems initially produced less potent antibodies that pressured the virus to cover a key point of its surface with sugar, or “glycan.”  This position on the cell became an Achilles’ heel, prompting the development of broadly neutralizing antibodies that effectively targeted the site.  This scientific know-how could prove crucial to what CAPRISA scientists envision as a sequential series of vaccinations that would mimic this co-evolution between HIV and the body’s immune response—but without the actual presence of the virus—and result in the creation of broadly neutralizing antibodies.

To read the University of the Witwatersrand news announcement, click here.

Search: HIV, vaccine, South Africa, broadly neutralizing antibodies, Nature Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa, CAPRISA, women, 88 percent

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Previous Comments:

steve, somewhere, 2013-01-17 18:51:01
Comment... . . . -- sure why not! Yea I think this is great news, II really do. But hey no rush, you know........?!? Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reporting this news here.

Jerry, St. Petersburg FL, 2013-01-04 08:35:13
It will probably help greatly in some patients but us that have had so much damamge to our bodies over the years how will it help us recover the afflictions that Aids has caused our bodies to malfunction over many years even when we didn't know what was happening to us .

Brian, Beantown, 2012-12-11 08:24:08
Don't be so selfish, a cure preventing others from facing the horror we have all faced would be the best thing short of a cure for all-a vaccine so not one more person dies or is forced to pay for a life time of chemo is nothing short of a miracle. Yes, I think there are cures, Sangamo is the most promising IMHO for treating/curing or some such genetic enginering of CD4s to use CCR5 rendering our own CD4s uninfectable, costs would seem to be prohibitive for this as a preventative.

Brian, Beantown, 2012-12-11 08:20:14
This could be ground breaking, of course its two damn patients-why? But this should be WHO number one priority along with stopping the... atrocities against Hep C infected patients dying for the cure they have if only they would give compassionate access trial phase 3 for those who can NOT WAIT! See change.org petition on Hep C Gilead work with BMS. They cured 100 percent of genotypes 1,2, 3a...and there own drug only cures type 1 for untreated and will delay trials for HIV yrs

Stefan, Newcastle, 2012-11-27 16:36:07
I believe a cure is already there. My theory 1. Cure the virus and pharmaceutical companies lose billions in treatment revenue. 2. It keeps the gay population down when people die !

Andy, , 2012-11-14 12:49:05
Well, it's all rather muddled by heavy jargon, but when you read the article, the antibodies were discovered in women participating in tenofovir gel studies. By definition, participants in those studies are negative. Furthermore, there's no mention of therapeutic applications for these antibodies and the word "cure" is never used. Will there be therapeutic applications? It doesn't rule it out, but I doubt it.

steve, somewhere, 2012-11-11 16:53:26
so this is not a cure - it would only prevent those who aren't infected? Yes or no? I don't like how reports on vaccines don't clearly clarify this question. The cure is what's needed, moral, and practical.

Andy, , 2012-11-10 12:24:44
Kudos for those who need it, but the vaccine is prophylactic, not therapeutic, leaving those of us who are already poz out in the cold, as all of these breakthroughs seem to. I wish HIV people could support the needs of HIV+ people for once.

Denise, Brooklyn, 2012-11-02 10:12:24
This is exciting. Just the introduction of hope for a viable vaccine in my lifetime is inspiring.

aaron m aker, Indianapolis, 2012-10-30 14:56:23
Ok so where do i sign up for the trials and testing at????? I want to be a guinea pig for this....

Matthew Thomas, Evansville in, 2012-10-26 11:31:19
Hopefully this can be developed within a reasonable amount of time! We are still dying!!