UT pathologists believe they have pinpointed Achilles heel of HIV

[bimazek]

this will take years before it is ready for human trials
because of money and finding money to do trials

but this is the
long story short  as far as i understand

**68 million years ago a proto pre hiv virus existed that used gp120 to infect cells when we were all sharks and stuff in ocean evolving, and so we developed or the evolution developed this antibody to this exact region of gp120 now it is very weak in saliva, we have one million different antibodies in a healthy human so this is fact, the UT team seems to have found a way in a mouse at least to stimulate the body to naturally produce more of this antibody or this natural abzyme which is in the saliva in the blood, and they can ramp it up to high levels very simply in a mouse with a kind of vaccine or monoclonal antibody, it is very complex in concept, to stim the b cells of immune system to produce these natural abzymes  and one molecule of it cuts up and damages millions of hiv particles so it is very powerful  but it is very powerful

that is my understanding of it after reading every summary of every paper the Dr. wrote for 18 years
now the issue is money and getting fundingut it will happen cause

same thing in reverse happens in Alzheimer so this can treat that too   

** think of sharks and how many retroviruses they must have gotten exposed to millions of years ago as they bit into meat, 8% of entire human genome is retrovirus dna so we have been catching these bugs for millions upon millions of years  --  lupus read up on that

[bimazek]

http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54915/
just to show how complex the dna world of viruses
today they found a tiny virus they call sputnik that infects other viruses
specifically the mimivirus
so science is learning new things about viruses all the time
mimivirus, mamavirus, and sputnik virus
interesting story
perhaps some day they could use this to attack and damage hiv that is always a hope

[bimazek]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/07/AR2008080703223.html

This small section of gp120 is identical in virtually all strains of HIV. But because it is partly hidden by other sections of the protein, the immune system "sees" it poorly and does not make good antibodies against it -- except in rare cases.

One of those exceptions is in lupus patients. AIDS researchers noticed years ago that HIV infection rarely occurred in them. "One hypothesis is that they mount an immune response that protected them," Planque said yesterday.

She screened a library of antibodies made by lupus patients, looking for ones with catalytic activity against the 13-unit stretch of gp120. She found some.

In one of yesterday's late sessions, she told scientists at the conference that lupus-derived antibodies killed HIV samples from five clades, or families, of the virus. In a related presentation, she described how antibodies purified from three people with hemophilia, who had each lived for more than 17 years with HIV infection, did the same.

The broad effect of the antibodies is important. The AIDS virus differs somewhat from one geographical region to another. To be useful, a microbicide or vaccine would have to protect against all the clades.

Antibodies are already in use as drugs for several chronic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, but they are extremely expensive, in part because they must be given in large doses.

However, Paul, Planque's supervisor, speculated that a microbicide containing antibodies might be affordable even for people in the developing world. That is because only very small quantities of material would be needed to protect against sexual transmission, and the protection would have to last only hours, not days or weeks.

Finding a way to stimulate the immune system to make catalytic antibodies will be much harder, he said. Paul is researching strategies for "presenting" the crucial part of the protein to the immune system in a more effective way than occurs naturally. If successful, such a strategy could result in a useful vaccine.

Curiously, everyone already makes the catalytic antibodies against gp120 in small quantities. That is because they are among the roughly 2,500 antibodies whose production is directly driven by genes and, thus, part of the immune system's innate repertoire.

The immune system can make millions of more antibodies, capable of attacking virtually any foreign substance. But that process involves being exposed to the foreign substance, called an antigen, a complicated process of gene-shuffling, and a time-consuming refinement of antibody production by the immune system.

In contrast, the anti-gp120 catalytic antibody is part of an ancient, hard-wired protective response, whose evolutionary origins are largely a mystery. Whatever they are, the body's output of them is not quite good enough to protect most people from HIV.

Paul and others hope that, with some tinkering, it might be made so.

[bimazek]

did the UT scientists present at the Mexico conference as was implied?

Is there any new info on this?

The same thing? was found at harvard and posted or was it emery about the gp120

any news

what was the major
research breakthrus of MEXICO

can the owners of this site please write an article that summarizes all the papers and all the steps forward in all areas please

haart, vaccine, gene therapy, etc

[Ann]

can the owners of this site please write an article that summarizes all the papers and all the steps forward in all areas please

http://www.aidsmeds.com/archive/2008_Jul_2211.shtml