New Study Offers Clues for HIV Vaccine Development
May 6, 2010
"A computer model [described in a study published online Wednesday in the journal Nature] proposes a solution to a long-standing mystery in HIV research -- why a small percentage of people infected with the virus never develop full-blown AIDS. The answer lies in how the immune cells that recognize invaders are educated, and suggests new strategies for designing an HIV vaccine," Nature News reports (Katsnelson, 5/5). For the study, researchers examined how HLA B57 -- a gene carried by many of the individuals with "a natural immunity" to HIV -- "affects an immune-system organ called the thymus, leading to the stronger array of T- cells," Bloomberg Business Week writes. "Vaccines one day might provoke the same reactions in people without natural immunity, the scientists said" (Narayan, 5/5).
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