Wow. I'd kind of thought a vaccine wasn't even being discussed anymore.
The New York Times reports:
A new compound has blocked H.I.V. infection so well in monkeys that it may be able to function as a vaccine against AIDS, the scientists who designed it reported Wednesday. H.I.V. has defied more than 30 years of conventional efforts to fashion a vaccine. The new method stimulates muscle cells to produce proteins that somewhat resemble normal antibodies, which have Y-shaped heads. These proteins have both a head and a tail, and they use them to simultaneously block two sites on each “spike” that the virus uses to attach itself to a cell. If both sites can be blocked on every spike, the virus becomes helpless and drifts off unattached into eventual oblivion by the immune system.Read HERE.
1 comment:
It's not a true vaccine, since it doesn't activate the immune system proper. This method somehow stimulates muscle cells to synthesize a protein which inhibits viral attachment to cells. It's like feeding the body instructions to synthesize the drug itself.
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