A study led by the University of Zurich and University Hospital Zurich has found that the genome of HIV influences how the immune system responds to the infection.
Miren Leache, Jaime Fernández, Livia López Brea, Laura Maldonado
October 10th 2018
A group of scientists searching for an HIV vaccine, are now focused on finding out which are the factors that influence the productions of some antibodies which are thought to be produced by some people infected with HIV which fight almost all strains of the virus.
The Swiss researchers had found some factors such as the virus load, diversity, the infection duration and the ethnicity of the affected person, but now they are focusing on another factor; how the immune system reacts to the virus is also influenced by the genome of the virus.
Blood samples from 4500 HIV infected patients were analyzed. From among all, the researchers isolated 303 pairs of patients who showed viruses with potential transmission pair and for whom the high similarity of the viruses’ genomic RNA indicated that they were probably infected with the same virus strain.
The envelope proteins, to which the antibodies that fight HIV bind to, can change depending on the strain and the subtype of the virus.
The researchers therefore examined more carefully a patient pair which had very similar virus genomes and very strong activity of broadly neutralized antibodies. Their conclusion was that there must be a special envelope protein that causes an efficient defense, so to be able to develop an effective vaccine against HIV-1, it is necessary to pinpoint the envelope proteins and virus strains that lead to the formation of broadly acting antibodies. They have found one candidate to continue with the research. Base on that, they will want to begin developing an immunogen theirselves.
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20180910/Discovery-provides-new-hope-for-anti-HIV-vaccine.aspx
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