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【bio-news】美科学家发现HIV病毒的弱点
Protein discovery could be the key to an HIV vaccine.
February 14, 2007
By Marisa Taylor
A group of U.S. scientists said Wednesday that they have discovered a weakness in the surface of the HIV virus that could potentially lead to the development of a vaccine for the deadly virus.
Researchers from the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) say they have found a “site of vulnerability” on one HIV surface protein, called gp120, where an antibody called b12 can successfully bind.
The HIV virus is difficult to fight because it is coated with slippery surface proteins that are constantly mutating as the virus is spread, so antibodies are often unable to recognize it, much less penetrate it. But scientists say they have captured an image of a stable portion of the gp120, so they may be able to target HIV at this particular spot with a vaccine using b12 antibodies.
“We’ve been trying to find out where on HIV one might be able to attack it with an antibody,” explains Peter Kwong, a researcher at the VRC of NIAID and one of the leaders of the study. As he says, this discovery has shown that “an HIV vaccine, instead of being an impossible dream, could really become a reality.”
More than four million people become infected with the HIV virus each year, and developing areas of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa, are the hardest hit. As a result, scientists have long been working on potential vaccines that would be administered in the hopes of protecting people from the spread of HIV.
While a number of HIV vaccines are in clinical development, with more than 30 candidates making it to early and mid phase trails since 1987, there are very few candidates that have made it to late stage trials, the most notable being Merck’s vaccine (see AIDS Vaccine Trial Launched in S. Africa and AIDS Vaccine Passes Safety Test).
The problem that researchers face when trying to create HIV vaccines, said Mr. Kwong, is that the virus essentially mutates into a new form in every person it infects, and that person develops unique antibodies to try to help combat the virus. The hope, then, is to find an antibody that can kill many strains of the virus, no matter how it mutates—and b12 appears to be one of them.
B12 was initially discovered in HIV-infected patients who seemed to keep the virus at bay for long periods of time. Scientists found that b12 has the ability to broadly disarm HIV—and the challenge has been finding a place where such a broad-spectrum antibody could infiltrate an essentially impenetrable virus.
“It’s been really tough, because every time you think you’ve found your site, you find some protective mechanism that prevents antibodies from disarming the virus at that place,” says Mr. Kwong.
The current study, which was performed by a group of scientists from NIAID, NIH, the National Cancer Institute, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, is an extension of previous research looking at images of gp120 as it binds to C4, the receptor that HIV targets to enter and infect human T cells.
While gp120 usually changes shape before binding to C4 as a way of blocking antibodies, the scientists saw this time around that gp120 remains stable and does not change before b12 binds to it. The findings suggest, then, that gp120 could be the entry point for antibodies that scientists have been searching for.
Now, Mr. Kwong says, the task will be to somehow enlist antibodies like b12 against that particular spot and hopefully protect people from HIV.
“Creating an HIV vaccine is one of the great scientific challenges of our time,” said Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the director of the National Institutes of Health, in a statement. “NIH researchers and their colleagues have revealed a gap in HIV’s armor and have thereby opened a new avenue to meeting that challenge.”
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=21306&hed=Scientists+Discover+Weakness+in+HIV+Virus%09§or=Industries&subsector=Biosciences 本人已认领该文编译，48小时后若未提交译文，请其他战友自由认领。 本人已认领该文编译，48小时后若未提交译文，请其他战友自由认领。 Scientists Discover Weakness in HIV
Protein discovery could be the key to an HIV vaccine.
February 14, 2007
By Marisa Taylor
美科学家发现HIV病毒的弱点
A group of U.S. scientists said Wednesday that they have discovered a weakness in the surface of the HIV virus that could potentially lead to the development of a vaccine for the deadly virus.
美国科学家称他们已经发现了HIV病毒表面的弱点，可能是HIV疫苗的潜在靶点。
Researchers from the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) say they have found a “site of vulnerability” on one HIV surface protein, called gp120, where an antibody called b12 can successfully bind.
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-03-06 05:24
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