Gene injection gives new hope in war on HIV
Source: Agencies |
December 2, 2011, Friday
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AS scientists struggle to find a vaccine to prevent infection by the AIDS virus, a study on mice suggests hope for a new approach, one that scientists now want to test on people.
The treated mice in the study appeared to have 100 percent protection against HIV. That does not mean the strategy will work in people, but experts are impressed by a paper on the research published this week.
"This is a very important paper (about) a very creative idea," said the US government's AIDS chief, Anthony Fauci.
The study involved injecting mice with a protective gene, an idea that has been tested against HIV infection in animals for a decade.
Researchers reported the latest results of tests on mice in the journal Nature. They hope to test it on people in a couple of years. Another team reported similar success with monkeys in 2009 and hopes to start human tests even sooner.
A traditional vaccine works by masquerading as a virus, training the body's immune system to build specific defenses against the real germ. Those defenses are generally antibodies - proteins in the blood that have just the right shape to latch on to and neutralize an invading virus.
Scientists have identified antibodies effective against a wide range of HIV strains, but have had trouble getting human immune systems to create them with a vaccine.
In the nearly 30 years since HIV was identified, scientists have failed to find a vaccine that is broadly effective.
The new approach involves gene injection. Rather than trying to train an immune system to produce effective antibodies, a person can be given genes designed to produce the antibodies. The genes can slip into cells in muscle or some other tissue and stimulate them to produce the antibodies.
The mouse work is reported by David Baltimore and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology. Using mice carrying human immune system cells, Baltimore's team harnessed an antibody gene to a harmless virus and injected it into a leg muscle. They found the mice made high levels of the antibody for more than a year - lifetime protection for a mouse.
Baltimore said: "We simply do not know what will happen in people."
Harris Goldstein, director of the Einstein-Montefiore Center for AIDS Research in New York, called Baltimore's result a significant advance.
The treated mice in the study appeared to have 100 percent protection against HIV. That does not mean the strategy will work in people, but experts are impressed by a paper on the research published this week.
"This is a very important paper (about) a very creative idea," said the US government's AIDS chief, Anthony Fauci.
The study involved injecting mice with a protective gene, an idea that has been tested against HIV infection in animals for a decade.
Researchers reported the latest results of tests on mice in the journal Nature. They hope to test it on people in a couple of years. Another team reported similar success with monkeys in 2009 and hopes to start human tests even sooner.
A traditional vaccine works by masquerading as a virus, training the body's immune system to build specific defenses against the real germ. Those defenses are generally antibodies - proteins in the blood that have just the right shape to latch on to and neutralize an invading virus.
Scientists have identified antibodies effective against a wide range of HIV strains, but have had trouble getting human immune systems to create them with a vaccine.
In the nearly 30 years since HIV was identified, scientists have failed to find a vaccine that is broadly effective.
The new approach involves gene injection. Rather than trying to train an immune system to produce effective antibodies, a person can be given genes designed to produce the antibodies. The genes can slip into cells in muscle or some other tissue and stimulate them to produce the antibodies.
The mouse work is reported by David Baltimore and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology. Using mice carrying human immune system cells, Baltimore's team harnessed an antibody gene to a harmless virus and injected it into a leg muscle. They found the mice made high levels of the antibody for more than a year - lifetime protection for a mouse.
Baltimore said: "We simply do not know what will happen in people."
Harris Goldstein, director of the Einstein-Montefiore Center for AIDS Research in New York, called Baltimore's result a significant advance.
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