HIV VACCINE FROM SOUTH AFRICAN SCIENTISTS

Scientists from South Africa are making progress towards finding a vaccine for HIV, have recently discovered that certain people can produce potential antibodies that can neutralize HIV strains.

Scientists knew for a fact that some (1 among 5) long term HIV infectants are able to produce powerful antibodies, but it has been a mystery that how exactly the body is able to do that.

A team of scientists from South Africa has discovered that when the virus evolves to evade its host’s immune system by adding a sugar molecule to its surface, the host’s antibodies adapt to recognize the sugar in such a way they can kill nine of 10 known strains of HIV.

Penny Moore says, “We’re hoping we can use this information to develop a vaccine that prompts the body’s immune system to make broadly neutralising antibodies”. The study is based on blood samples taken at regular intervals over several years from two women infected with HIV, enabling scientists to study how both the virus and the women’s antibodies have changed over time.” Unfortunately these broadly acting antibodies do not cure HIV, but they do stop it from infecting healthy cells, "They don’t help the people who develop them at all, because the virus is already established” he added.

A sugar molecule called GLYCAN situated on the virus’s outer protein coating labeled 332, prompted the immune systems of these women to make antibodies that killed 88% of HIV strains. They found that the GLYCAN molecule was present in about two thirds of HIV-C, the subtype circulating in Southern Africa.

It implies that targeting only the GLYCAN molecule will only be partially effective and a vaccine would need to take aim at multiple weak points in the virus, says Dr. Moore

This research was carried on by a consortium from the Centre for Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (Caprisa), the NICD, the universities of Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal, and the US universities of North Carolina and Harvard.

Hope we’ll see the vaccine coming soon in near future, thanks to our South African scientists.