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Scientists have claimed that they have discovered a “weak spot” of HIV which will help them to enhance their pursuit for a vaccine against AIDS.
Antibodies which bind to the weak spot" on HIV, which was not known till now, and is seen commonly in many strains have brought hopes that the manufacturing of HIV vaccine is almost within the reach now.
According to the scientists, they can now aim for vaccines that trick people into making their own antibodies to target it. "It's the discovery of the target that is the key thing," said team member Wayne Koff of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in New York.
The study led by Dennis Burton of the Scripps Research Institute in California, screened the blood from 1,800 infected individuals for antibodies. They discovered that 10% of the donors’ blood produced "broadly-neutralising antibodies", which have the potential to identify multiple HIV strains. This was cut down to just two extremely strong antibodies.
One, codenamed PG9, neutralised 127 of 162 HIV strains and the other, codenamed PG16, neutralised 119. And, detailed lab analyses revealed exactly the part of virus the antibodies recognised, and it turned out as an unrecognised binding site.
