July 16, 2008

Scientists Discover and Target HIV’s Weak Spot

“Super” antibodies known as abzymes can overcome one of HIV’s most clever methods of escaping the immune system, say the authors of a study published in the June 2008 issue of Autoimmunity Reviews and reported in Science Daily.

The antibodies that most people’s immune systems make are largely ineffective against HIV. Researchers have also had great difficulties developing a vaccine that produces human antibodies that can effectively combat the virus. One reason is that HIV’s outer coat—its envelope—easily changes shape, or mutates, and therefore eludes antibodies.

Recently, however, Sudhir Paul, PhD, and two other scientists at the University of Texas at Houston, including the study’s lead author, graduate student Stephanie Planque, discovered a small portion of the HIV envelope that must remain unchanged for the virus to be infectious. This portion of the HIV envelope escapes attack by most people’s immune systems because the virus is able to prevent antibody producing B cells from producing antibodies against it.

Paul’s team, however, has found that people with the autoimmune disease lupus, along with a small segment of people with HIV who do not get sick, are able to produce abzymes that target this protected region of HIV’s envelope. In test tubes, Paul found that these abzymes not only recognized the protected region, but also succeeded in damaging and destroying the viruses they interacted with.

Researchers at the University of Texas are preparing to test the abzymes as a therapeutic in people with HIV. Researchers are also exploring the use of abzymes in microbicide gels to prevent HIV infection.

Search: abzyme, antibodies, Sudhir Paul, Stephanie Planque, University of Texas, autoimmune, lupus

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Previous Comments:

JF, Hartsdale, 2008-10-21 19:35:50
This sounds so promising. It's the best thing that I've heard of in a long time. I would like to participate in a trial also. Preferably before my kidneys or liver give me problems. We have a right to be skeptical but we should never give up hoping. Anyone with info. on trials for this...please post.

Josh, , 2008-10-15 00:28:21
Please God... Please make this work.

Carlos Orlando, Margate, 2008-09-18 18:21:16
I am a retired biologist with a couple of master degrees in genetics and marine biology. I have been positive for 12 years and have been undetectable for the past 8 years and I had a treatment interruption that lasted 2 years. Am I a good candidate to participate in this new study? Thanks for your answer.

Anne, , 2008-09-18 14:51:31
its so sad

Charles Baltz, Honolulu, HI, 2008-09-11 19:07:59
How do I find out about becoming a trail patient in this study? I have emailed these doctors in Texas with no response back. Any ideas would be appreciated greatly.

Abraham ortiz, kissimmee, 2008-08-09 01:43:36
I went to the western wall in Israel to ask G-d to heal me and sometimes I feel like I dont fit in anywhere because the gay people dont want to be around me and the religious are a little aprehenssive about me even I sometimes wish I could be around scientist experimenting on me

Anibal José da Silva, , 2008-07-30 10:24:29
Excellent or was it fortuitous timing? President Bush appears poised to sign into law a multibillion-dollar AIDS relief bill that will lift a long-standing ban on HIV-positive foreign visitors and immigrants.

Andrew, Silver Spring MD, 2008-07-27 01:21:28
U know I agree with some of the comments made about the financial status of this disease at this point as well Medicine being in ka-hoots to keep anything of a sort from surfacing but it can't be stopped. All I want to say is; I am usually not one for trials BUT I want to be in the trials for this experiment. Researching. . . .

robert, palm springs, ca., 2008-07-24 12:59:55
just started atripla. is anyone else having trouble sleeping or falling to sleep on atripla? thanks.

Marcos, São Paulo, Brazil, 2008-07-23 18:01:58
What a such great new! Hope and Faith that it works this time....

C.ab, detroit, MI, 2008-07-23 17:46:02
To suggest that the entire medical community is "in ka-hoots" to hide or prevent a cure for HIV, I find ludacris. I fully support the concept that not all doctors and researchers are created equal- But the unequivocal fame and money (and general care and concern) for solving the HIV world crisis, could never be completely buried world-wide. But hey, thats just my opinion-

SB, ny, 2008-07-18 07:04:46
This theory sounds promising, but so were many others. The problem is that HIV & AIDS have become so profitable by the medical community that the thought of a cure in their minds would be financially superfluous

Jose Villarreal, Del Rio, 2008-07-17 17:22:20
Finally this are sort of good news for us; and I say sort of, because it is very probable that this tests with abzymes fail, or are to be made seem as failure by people for whom these findings are not convenient. Am I mistaking?