New breakthrough in AIDs vaccine research
09/07/2010
New findings by scientists researching a potential vaccine for the AIDs virus could prove big news.
US researchers working on a vaccine have found two new antibodies that are able to neutralise more than 90 per cent of all the strains of the HIV virus that are currently known.
The antibodies - VRCO1 and VRCO2 - could also be used in antibody treatment of other conditions, said the researchers.
"Hundreds of variants of the virus are now in circulation around the world and the identification of so-called broadly neutralising antibodies that can block the bulk of them has been the holy grail of HIV researchers," noted the LA Times.
Around two-thirds of the globe's cases of HIV and AIDs can be found in sub-Saharan Africa. A recent survey found that nearly 12 per cent of the population of Mozambique are suffering from HIV or AIDs.
Commenting on the new findings, Dr Gary Nabel of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told Reuters he is "more optimistic" about an AIDS vaccine being created then he has been in the past decade.
Written by John Curtis.
