From the ArcaMax Publishing, Science & Technology Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/technology/s-379290-255934
HOUSTON (UPI) -- HIV researchers at the University of Texas Medical
School in Houston said they think they've found the chink in armor of
the virus linked to AIDS.
The vulnerable spot is hidden in a protein essential for the Human
Immunodeficiency Virus, the virus that causes Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome, to attach to host cells, the university said in a
release.
An HIV vaccine doesn't exist because HIV is a mutating virus.
The scientists said they are focusing on a stretch of amino acids on
HIV's envelope protein gp120.
"Unlike the changeable regions of its envelope, HIV needs at least one
region that must remain constant to attach to cells. If this region
changes, HIV cannot infect cells," said Sudhir Paul, a pathology
professor at the UT Medical School.
Paul's group engineered antibodies with enzymatic activity, called
abzymes, that can attack the virus's weakness.
"The abzymes recognize essentially all of the diverse HIV forms found
across the world. This solves the problem of HIV changeability," Paul
said. "The next step is to confirm our theory in human clinical
trials."
The theory was in a recent issue of Autoimmunity Reviews and will be
presented during the International AIDS Conference Aug. 3-8 in Mexico
City.