TWO ANTIBODIES FOUND TO THWART HIV INFECTION
Baku July 9 (AZERTAC). In what could be a major breakthrough in the quest for an effective AIDS vaccine, researchers at a U.S. government laboratory reported Thursday the discovery of two powerful antibodies that can prevent most strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from infecting human cells, VOA reports.
Scientists say the two antibodies, discovered in the blood of an HIV-infected individual, were able to neutralize more than 90 percent of known HIV strains in laboratory tests with human cells. Antibodies are the chemical proteins that the body makes to rally an immune system response following exposure to a virus or bacterium.
The problem with fighting off HIV infection is that millions of variants of the AIDS virus now exist around the world because HIV constantly changes its surface appearance to avoid detection by the immune system.
According to researchers at the Vaccine Research Center - part of the federally-funded National Institutes of Health, the two antibodies, called VRC01 and VRC02, interfere with HIV`s ability to latch on to and cripple human T cells, the immune system`s primary weapon against invaders.
Scientists discovered the antibodies in the laboratory using a novel technique that enabled them to identify areas on HIV`s molecular surface that remain nearly constant across all viral strains.
