Scientists expose HIV weak spot

[elDiablo]

BBC News Online saying how a non-mutating protein on the surface of the HIV has been found, meaning a vaccine might not be far off. From the article:

Developing a vaccine for HIV has proved extremely difficult.

The virus is able to mutate rapidly to avoid detection by the immune system, and is also swathed by a near-impenetrable cloak of sugary molecules which block access by antibodies.

But certain parts of the virus must remain relatively unchanged so that it can continue to bind to and enter human cells.

A protein, gp120, that juts out from the surface of the virus and binds to receptors on host cells, is one such region, making it a target for vaccine development.

Seeing as HIV (and the results AIDS) is one of the biggest killer (according to Wikipedia, over 25 million people have died of it since it was recognised in 1981), this could be a very big step.

 

[Haven]

It really depends what biological processes also use that protein legitimately to bind to cells. Wouldn't be much fun killing aids by wiping out your own immune system and then dying from some other critter

But its good that they are finding possibilities.

 

[elDiablo]

Very true. In fact, does anyone else know of other cells that have the same protein? I'm not overly good with biology, but it interests me!

Edit:

Interestingly, Wikipedia says that interest in using this protein for HIV vaccines has been lost, due to the fact that "it can easily be shed from the virus' surface and captured by T-cells due to its loose binding with gp41 [another protein in the HIV, look at the Wikipedia link]". So is the BBC news article old news already? =/