HIV vaccine

[somebody]

I don't know if you know hear about the HIV breakthrough. I heard this from my molecular biology teacher last Thursday. Since HIV is a virus that effects host by injecting its RNA, it has been difficult for researchers to find a stable sequence of RNA since HIV RNA is unstable and keep changing its sequence. But researchers were able to find a short sequence near the GP120 (protein on the surface of the HIV). Since GP120 binds to CD4 protein on the surface of the T-lymphocytes, researchers believe that they may be able to come up with vaccine is short future.

 

I am not 100% positive about the RNA sequences and the proteins since i was trying to jolt down all the information professor was giving.

 

your thoughts?

 

also please post any information that you might have about this to help me understand this better.

[gribbon]

Since CD4 receptor binding is the most obvious step in HIV infection, gp120 was looked at a lot by HIV vaccine researchers. These efforts have been hampered by the chemical and structural properties of gp120, (anti-bodies don't grip it properly etc) and the virus often sheds it from it's surface, meaning that it is captured by T-cells because of its loose binding with gp41. This has meant that most researchers have lost interest in using gp120 based HIV vaccines.

[Monomer]

HIV keeps changing its outer coat, and vaccines have not been successful because they can't make effective neutralising antibodies. Researchers have used vaccines to protect monkeys against SIV, so they're not giving up hope of finding a vaccine for HIV. They're looking at vaccines that stimulate the killer T cells because those cells usually recognise conserved regions of RNA. They're also looking at antibodies from infected people that have blocked HIV in test tubes.

 

These are interesting reads:

http://www.hvtn.org/pdf/media/KUOW_6-20-06.pdf

Is an Effective HIV Vaccine Feasible? -- Cohen 309 (5731): 99 -- Science