Posted by Claire Shefchik - thirdage.com
An antibody that gains hold of the HIV/AIDS virus has revealed a new potential target for developing a vaccine for the virus, a Scripps Research Institute study showed.
PGT 128, one of more than a dozen antibodies that work against the various strains of the HIV/AIDS virus, can block the ability of 70 percent of global HIV strains to infect cells, in smaller concentrations than any of its predecessors.
"What's unexpected and unique about this antibody is that it not only attaches to the sugar coating of the virus but also reaches through to grab part of the virus's envelope protein," said lead study author Dennis Burton, a professor at The Scripps Research Institute and scientific director of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative's (IAVI) Neutralizing Antibody Center at Scripps Research's La Jolla campus.
Using X-ray crystallography, a research associate of co-author Ian Wilson, the Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at Scripps Research. showed that PGT 128 binds to sugars known as glycans that surround the surface of the virus, preventing it from being attacked by the body's immune system. More importantly, at the same time PGT128 reaches through the cluster of glycans surrounding HIV's envelope protein to take hold of a structure called the V3 loop.
Knowledge of these binding sites of PGT 128 could give researchers ways to develop vaccines that stimulate a lifelong antibody against vulnerable sites.
"We'll probably need multiple targets on the virus for a successful vaccine, but certainly PGT 128 shows us a very good target," said Burton.
The study appeared online Oct. 13 in the journal Science Express:
Brian Carter
ReplyDeleteDoes this shit make any sense?
"PGT 128,....can block the ability of 70 percent of global HIV strains to infect cells"
".......showed that PGT 128 binds to sugars known as glycans that surround the surface of the virus, preventing it from being attacked by the body's immune system"
George C. O'Connor Just the first sentence in the abstract makes babbling fools of those who propose any usefulness of this study's "discovery:"
"The HIV envelope (Env) protein gp120 is protected from antibody recognition by a dense glycan shield."
Strictly for the sake of argument let's pretend that "HIV" has been isolated.
If "HIV's" envelope were such that it were "protected from antibody recognition" how is it that we go about detecting it by antibodies specific to it? To know so much about its proteins and glycoproteins - let alone its entire and ever-mutating genome - we *somehow* have managed to pass the first step in purification and run rapidly beyond that step to define its uniqueness in a multiplicity of its facets, *including* using specific proteins from its *antibodies* (!) to better define it!
Why no Immunoglobulin response? OK, you get three guesses and the first two don't count!
Another contribution to sci-fi regarding a hypothetical retrovirus with the abilities of a supercomputer to remain unconquerable and always pathogenic.
Horseshit!
David Crowe One of the excuses why "HIV" proteins (like p24) usually can't be found is because they're bound by antibodies. In which case the virus should be neutralized. But a natural state of health doesn't justify million dollar research budgets, does it?
Manny El Dino This shit smells no different than all the other attempts of them trying to make a vaccine for this bullshit. I don't know who their kidding, they're never going to succeed with a virus that hasn't been properly isolated and because antibodies are used as the determining factor to diagnose an individual HIV positive. Vaccines if anything will be giving everybody and their mothers the "HIV Antibody" with that done, how are they going to determine who's HIV+ and who's not? this will bring an end to their scheme! and they wouldn't want that to happen.
There's no end to the complete asinine absurdity these nut case researchers will come up with.
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