Synthetic gene helps HIV vaccine hit shape-shifting foe

An HIV vaccine that uses a synthetic gene to trigger an immune response might offer a way to protect against the virus where others have failed. Most vaccines work by training immune cells called B-cells to produce antibodies against a virus. Another approach is to stimulate T-cells, which kill cells infected with the virus. This is known as inducing cellular immunity. Previous T-cell vaccines have largely failed because of HIV’s ability to rapidly mutate and escape them. To get around this, Lucy Dorrell at the University of Oxford and her team created a synthetic gene by stitching together 14 regions of the HIV genome that don’t tend to mutate because if they do the virus struggles to survive. This means the vaccine just focuses the immune system on conserved segments, says Dorrell. To expose the immune system to this gene, it was inserted into three delivery vessels: two disabled viruses and a free-floating circle...