by Sara Malmanger, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Science Writing Intern with BioQuick News
HIV researchers have found that giving the human body’s immune system a boost of specific antibodies may be a potential fix to HIV/AIDS as we seek a cure or vaccine. Our world could be free of this deadly virus sooner than we ever thought possible. Researchers are hopeful that they have found a way to turn our own immune systems against the disease. In an interview, Adrian McDermott (photo), PhD, from the NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, said, “We are hoping to use HIV-specific antibodies that target vulnerable parts of the HIV envelope to prevent and treat HIV.” The Vaccine Research Center is within the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. McDermott is presently Acting Chief, Immunology Core, within the Vaccine Research Center. He is a former Director of Immunobiology and Vaccine Design at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) in New York. The antibody studies are important because more than 35 million people have HIV worldwide, and around one million people have HIV in the United States. Despite the common feeling that AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a disease of the past, it is still harming and destroying many lives. HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) essentially erodes and ultimately destroys the immune system over time. HIV, without appropriate health care and treatment, can develop into AIDS. Once a person reaches the AIDS stage of the infection, the immune system can’t fight off pathogens that cause common illnesses, where a healthy immune system could knock these bugs out with ease.
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