Study Finds New Approach That Stops HIV at Earliest Stage

Scripps Research Institute scientists have come up with a novel two-punch strategy to combat HIV at the earliest stage of infection.

This unique process is based on latest viral discoveries and scientists have already successfully tested aspects of it in the laboratory. According to the authors of the study, this discovery may reinstate attempts for developing a preventive/therapeutic vaccine against HIV.

More than a dozen candidate vaccines, which have tried to raise immunity against the spiky proteins on the viral envelope, have not succeeded in clinical testing, till date.

The team of researchers led by Chi-Huey Wong, Scripps Research Chemistry Professor, have created devices known as glycodendrons, designed to do two things at once: inhibit the transport of HIV from where it traditionally enters the body, preventing it from moving deeper inside where it can infect immune cells; and set up an immune antibody response to a unique carbohydrate structure on the surface of the virus.

“This paper is about a new direction in HIV vaccine design. Results we have so far are very promising,” said Wong.

He said that till date, the devices have been able to stimulate the immune system of mice to induce antibodies against HIV surface glycoprotein, and, in laboratory studies, have been able to block the virus from infecting immune cells.

The new strategy is based on two recent findings in the field of HIV research: First is the discovery that HIV takes a Trojan horse approach to reach cells it needs to infect deep inside the human body.