chimx
16th February 2007, 00:52
A chink discovered in HIV's seemingly impenetrable armor may provide the structural insights needed to develop a vaccine.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health, Scripps Research Institute, and Harvard Medical School combined forces to solve the X-ray structure of a powerful blocking antibody as it binds to a vulnerable spot on HIV's envelope protein (Nature 2007, 445, 732).
Figuring out how these potent antibodies block virus infection gives researchers a blueprint for designing a vaccine that could spur the human immune system to do the same.
The work is a "huge advance," comments Warner C. Greene, director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology & Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco. "This type of data could greatly inform future efforts" to design vaccines, which he describes as a "long-stymied" venture.
"After years of disheartening results, people started thinking that a vaccine was not possible," says coauthor Peter D. Kwong of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases. "This result says, 'No, it's not impossible.' "
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/85/i08/8508notw1.html
The website has a bunch of videos and other fancy links n' such. I just posted a first few paragraphs to get you started. Certainly good news in the fight against HIV/AIDS
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health, Scripps Research Institute, and Harvard Medical School combined forces to solve the X-ray structure of a powerful blocking antibody as it binds to a vulnerable spot on HIV's envelope protein (Nature 2007, 445, 732).
Figuring out how these potent antibodies block virus infection gives researchers a blueprint for designing a vaccine that could spur the human immune system to do the same.
The work is a "huge advance," comments Warner C. Greene, director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology & Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco. "This type of data could greatly inform future efforts" to design vaccines, which he describes as a "long-stymied" venture.
"After years of disheartening results, people started thinking that a vaccine was not possible," says coauthor Peter D. Kwong of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases. "This result says, 'No, it's not impossible.' "
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/85/i08/8508notw1.html
The website has a bunch of videos and other fancy links n' such. I just posted a first few paragraphs to get you started. Certainly good news in the fight against HIV/AIDS