New hope for Aids vaccine

Tuesday July 20th, 2010

British scientists have found a "promising new approach" to developing an Aids vaccine, it was announced last night.

The Oxford University researchers say they have identified chains of molecules coating the Aids virus, HIV, that remain unchanged - and might form the target for a vaccine.

Finding Aids vaccines has proved elusive as the virus is constantly changing.

Now the scientists say they may have found a part of the virus that does not change.

The researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Oxford researchers worked with the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and the Ragon Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, on the project.

Researcher Chris Scanlan said: "We're used to flu vaccines being reformulated every year because new strains come along.

"Yet you will see more viral diversity develop in a single HIV patient in a single day than you will in the whole flu season this year across the whole of the UK.
That is some challenge for developing a vaccine against HIV.

"We're cautiously optimistic that this research could lead to a promising new approach for a vaccine against HIV/AIDS. We've found something that doesn't change across all classes of HIV - from viruses found in the USA to those in Uganda - and it's something that can be made and manufactured."

He explained: "We've shown that HIV's camouflage may be flawed. The carbohydrates on an HIV virus are different to the body's own cells, and that might give us an opportunity to attack."

* Meanwhile researchers were celebrating other findings that offer hope in the battle against the spread of HIV.

The International Congress on Aids on Vienna, Austria, heard that an anti-virus gel can help protect women from contracting the disease.

Researchers reported on a study involving nearly 900 women in South Africa. They said the gel cut HIV infection rates by 39 per cent.

The findings were reported by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa.

* Another study, reported in The Lancet, shows that drug treatment "significantly" prevents the spread of the virus.

The findings come from a trial in British Columbia, Canada, aimed at injecting drug users and backed by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse.

PNAS July 19, 2010, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1006498107

The Lancet July 19 2010

Tags: Africa | Europe | Flu & Viruses | North America | UK News | World Health

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