The Hunt for an HIV/AIDS Vaccine
This week researchers are meeting in Seattle to discuss the 33 vaccine trials happening right now on every continent. The recent revelation that for every one person treated, six new people get infected has redirected crucial attention to the race for an HIV vaccine.
From an editorial in the Seattle Times today:
“Treating those infected with HIV or who have full-blown AIDS is critical. But no one should forget that there is no way out of the AIDS epidemic without a vaccine.
Seattle has become a gateway for such efforts. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last year put $287 million behind the collaborative efforts of 165 scientists from 19 countries. Long-term grants and improved funding from nonprofit organizations and the federal government have attracted more scientists, including younger ones, to the vaccine search.”
For more about the hunt for a vaccine, check out the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise and the WHO-UNAIDS Vaccine Initiative.
-Porter McConnell, ONE Policy and Coalition Coordinator
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October 17, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071012080135.htm
Science Daily — The search for a vaccination against HIV has been in progress since 1984, with very little success. Traditional methods used for identifying potential cellular targets can be very costly and time-consuming.
The key to creating a vaccination lies in knowing which parts of the pathogen to target with which antibodies. A new study by David Heckerman and colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital, publishing in PLoS Computational Biology, has come up with a way to match pathogens to their antibodies.
At the core of the human immune response is the train-to-kill mechanism in which specialized immune cells are sensitized to recognize small peptides from foreign pathogens (e.g., HIV). Following this sensitization, these cells are then activated to kill cells that display this same peptide. However, for sensitization and killing to occur, the pathogen peptide must be “paired up” with one of the infected person’s other specialized immune molecules–an HLA (human leukocyte antigen) molecule. The way in which pathogen peptides interact with these HLA molecules defines if and how an immune response will be generated.
Heckerman’s model uses ELISpot assays to identify HLA-restricted epitopes, and which HLA alleles are responsible for which reactions towards which pathogens. The data generated about the immune response to pathogens fills in missing information from previous studies, and can be used to solve a variety of similar problems.
The model was applied to data from donors with HIV, and made 12 correct predictions out of 16. This study, says David Heckerman, has “significant implications for the understanding of…vaccine development.” The statistical approach is unusual in the study of HLA molecules, and could lead the way to developing an HIV vaccine.
Citation: Listgarten J, Frahm N, Kadie C, Brander C, Heckerman D (2007) A statistical framework for modeling HLA-dependent T cell response data. PLoS Comput Biol 3(10): e188. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030188
Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by Public Library of Science.
Fausto Intilla
http://www.oloscience.com
January 4, 2010 at 6:41 am
Sry for being offtopic – what Word Press template do you use? Looks amazing.