HIV Isolate From Kenya Provides Clues For Vaccine Design

[Guest guest]

HIV Isolate From Kenya Provides Clues For Vaccine Design

ScienceDaily (Jan. 6, 2008)

Two simple changes in its outer envelope protein could render the

AIDS virus vulnerable to attack by the immune system, according to

research from Kenya and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Hepatitis B

HIV test

The results could provide important clues for designing an effective

AIDS vaccine, which is badly needed to decrease the number of new HIV

infections, now estimated at about 2.5 million per year worldwide.

Although most people infected with HIV produce antibodies against the

virus within several weeks following infection, these antibodies

rarely prevent the infection from progressing to symptomatic AIDS.

While studying a group of women at risk of HIV in Mombasa,

Overbaugh and colleagues noticed that one woman carried an AIDS virus

that was easily inactivated by antibodies. They initially described

this case in 2007 in the Journal AIDS.

Analyzing this woman's virus, they found that it contains mutations

in four amino acids in the envelope protein, two of which, when

introduced into unrelated strains of HIV in the laboratory, conferred

sensitivity to inactivation by a number of antibodies produced in

people infected with HIV.

The researchers propose that these mutations cause a change in the

overall structure of the envelope protein that results in exposure to

the immune system of regions that are normally hidden. If further

research confirms this idea, vaccines containing envelope proteins

that include these mutations might be able to stimulate an antibody

response that would protect against infection with HIV.

Journal Citation: Blish CA, Nguyen MA, Overbaugh J (2008) Enhancing

exposure of HIV-1 neutralization epitopes through mutations in gp41.

PLoS Med 5(1): e9 http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?

request=get-document & doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050009

[Guest guest]

HIV Isolate From Kenya Provides Clues For Vaccine Design

ScienceDaily (Jan. 6, 2008)

Two simple changes in its outer envelope protein could render the

AIDS virus vulnerable to attack by the immune system, according to

research from Kenya and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Hepatitis B

HIV test

The results could provide important clues for designing an effective

AIDS vaccine, which is badly needed to decrease the number of new HIV

infections, now estimated at about 2.5 million per year worldwide.

Although most people infected with HIV produce antibodies against the

virus within several weeks following infection, these antibodies

rarely prevent the infection from progressing to symptomatic AIDS.

While studying a group of women at risk of HIV in Mombasa,

Overbaugh and colleagues noticed that one woman carried an AIDS virus

that was easily inactivated by antibodies. They initially described

this case in 2007 in the Journal AIDS.

Analyzing this woman's virus, they found that it contains mutations

in four amino acids in the envelope protein, two of which, when

introduced into unrelated strains of HIV in the laboratory, conferred

sensitivity to inactivation by a number of antibodies produced in

people infected with HIV.

The researchers propose that these mutations cause a change in the

overall structure of the envelope protein that results in exposure to

the immune system of regions that are normally hidden. If further

research confirms this idea, vaccines containing envelope proteins

that include these mutations might be able to stimulate an antibody

response that would protect against infection with HIV.

Journal Citation: Blish CA, Nguyen MA, Overbaugh J (2008) Enhancing

exposure of HIV-1 neutralization epitopes through mutations in gp41.

PLoS Med 5(1): e9 http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?

request=get-document & doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050009