Effective vaccine against AIDS in the offing

Scientists are developing a new AIDS vaccine capable of inducing naturally produced antibodies in HIV patients to prevent the deadly infection. Some people infected with HIV naturally produce antibodies that effectively neutralise many strains of the rapidly mutating virus, researchers said. Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) in US are working to develop a vaccine capable of inducing such “broadly neutralising” antibodies that can prevent HIV infection. An emerging vaccine strategy involves immunising people with a series of different engineered HIV proteins as immunogens to teach the immune system to produce broadly neutralising antibodies against HIV, researchers said. This strategy depends on the ability of the first immunogen to bind and activate special cells, known as broadly neutralising antibody precursor B cells, which have the potential to develop into broadly neutralising antibody-producing B cells, they said. Researchers have now found that...