Researchers identify proteins that help resist HIV

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Researchers identify proteins that help resist HIV

MATTHEW CAMPBELL

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

September 4, 2008 at 4:57 AM EDT

A team of Canadian and Kenyan scientists may have solved one of the mysteries of Africa's HIV and AIDS epidemic: why some sex workers who are routinely exposed to the virus are never infected by it.

Researchers from the University of Manitoba, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the University of Nairobi announced yesterday that they have identified eight proteins present at unusually high levels in the genital secretions of female sex workers who display resistance to HIV. Levels of seven other proteins were unusually low.

The relative concentrations of those proteins appear to be one of the keys to explaining the women's ability to avoid becoming ill, said Blake Ball, a professor of medical microbiology at the U. of Manitoba and one of the lead investigators.

He added that true immunity probably requires unusual protein levels in addition to genetic predisposition and a highly adaptive immune system.

The study was carried out with a sample of 3,000 Nairobi sex workers, some 140 of whom appear to be naturally resistant to HIV. Many are completely immune, while others are merely "late converters" with high initial resistance.

The find has considerable implications for future research on new treatments or a vaccine. "All the next steps are the hard biology," Dr. Ball said - specifically, determining how and why resistant women's protein levels become what they are, and finding a way to replicate the effect in others.

While he stressed that his team's study was a relatively small-scale pilot, he said that "we're excited by this result," which "may eventually lead researchers toward a vaccine."