Study Discovers Another Way HIV Surmounts Immune Response
A recent study in Public Library of Science Pathogens finds that HIV employs various methods in order to mutate and escape from the body’s natural immune response. The study is of great importance in the development of potential vaccines that will work to help the immune system fight HIV infection.
Most HIV infected individuals develop neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) within the first few weeks of infection. NAbs are proteins manufactured by the body’s immune system, which create an immune response to fight infection of such a virus.
NAbs may work against an individual’s own virus, which is referred to as autologous neutralizing response. In such a response, the immune system exerts pressure on HIV to limit replication and to prevent new infection from occurring. However, due to HIV’s ability to mutate and proliferate rapidly, NAbs are unable to keep up.
In the study, blood samples were collected from recently infected individuals in Zambia two years after infection. The body’s total immune response was observed, with a focus on whether the NAbs could neutralize the infection.
In one individual, NAbs were found early on after infection. In both individuals, HIV was able to mutate and avoid antibody attack through either of the two following methods: by attaching a glucose (sugar) molecule to itself, or by changing its outer protein to block NAbs from attaching.
These results show the importance of analyzing and understanding the early events of immune response and how the virus responds or mutates in order to develop a successful vaccine.
For more information, please see PLoS’ original publication, a PLoS opinion article, and another PLoS publication.
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