Effective HIV vaccine comes closer to reality: Scientists

Scientific have discovered how the immune system makes a powerful antibody that blocks HIV infection of cells by targeting a key site, paving way for an effective vaccine for the deadly virus.

Researchers believe that if a vaccine could elicit potent antibodies to a specific conserved site in the V1V2 region of the virus, one of a handful of sites that remains constant on the fast- mutating virus, then the vaccine could protect people from HIV infection.

An analysis of the results of a clinical trial of the only experimental HIV vaccine to date to have modest success in people suggest that antibodies directed to sites within the V1V2 region were protective.

The new findings point the way towards a potentially more effective vaccine that would generate V1V2-directed HIV neutralising antibodies, researchers at the institute said.

The study led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) scientists began by identifying an HIV-infected volunteer who naturally developed V1V2-directed HIV neutralising antibodies, named CAP256- VRC26, after several months of infection.

The study showed that after relatively few mutations, even the early intermediates can neutralise a significant proportion of known HIV strains.

This improves the chances that a V1V2-directed HIV vaccine developed based on the new findings would be effective, according to scientists.