CC licensed by photo Micro World (flickr)

An exciting, cutting-edge approach to HIV prevention is quickly gaining support, as researchers  have been learning about special antibodies that have destroyed HIV in the lab.  Now, biologists at Caltech have taken the next step, as they have discovered a way to insert these antibodies into mice, thus protecting them from HIV infection.

This new approach to HIV prevention — called Vectored ImmunoProphylaxis, or VIP — is outlined in the November 30 advance online publication of the journal Nature.

This new technique in HIV prevention is revolutionary, as supposed to traditional methods that centered on developing a vaccine that would provoke the formation of antibodies or T cells in the body, VIP provides protective antibodies directly.

Mice treated with VIP have been shown to produce high concentrations of the protective antibodies throughout their lives, and remain protected from HIV when it is administered intravenously.

Still, researchers must make the next step and show that the antibodies produced from VIP work to destroy HIV in humans.  According to researchers however, the problem will not be whether the antibodies work, as they are relatively sure of its effectiveness.  Rather, experiments will have to be conducted to see if VIP produces enough of these antibodies.  According to Alejandro Balazs, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral scholar, “In typical vaccine studies, those inoculated usually mount an immune response — you just don’t know if it’s going to work to fight the virus.  In this case, because we already know that the antibodies work, my opinion is that if we can induce production of sufficient antibody in people, then the odds that VIP will be successful are actually pretty high.”

For more information on this revolutionary new technique, visit the page http://intelwars.com/2011/11/30/gene-therapy-turns-muscles-into-hiv-antibody-factories/ 

What do you think?  Will the VIP method be successful in humans, and will HIV and AIDS finally be conquered?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email