AIDS vaccine could neutralize nearly all strains of virus

A study from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) recently found that a vaccine or other therapy directed at a single site on a surface protein of HIV could in principle neutralize nearly all strains of the virus. It is expected that the study will influence future designs for HIV vaccines and antibody-based therapies, Science Daily reports. The study, which appears in the May 15 issue of Science Translational Medicine, was led by senior investigator Dennis R. Burton, a professor at TSRI and the scientific director of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) Neutralizing Antibody Center. He is also scientific director of the National Institutes of Health’s Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) on TSRI’s La Jolla campus. according to Science Daily. The HIV virus evades the human immune response system by using a strategy of covering its most exposed parts, Env structures, with antibody-resistant sugar molecules call glycans. In...