The discoveries which were conducted at the University of Texas Houston Medical School and California Department of Public Health, with support from the National Institutes of Health, were presented at the XVII International AIDS Society Conference in Vienna, Austria on July 19th and 20th, 2010.
The newly identified HIV vaccine candidate, which has been tested in mice and rabbits, was effective in inducing the production of protective antibodies that stopped the HIV from infecting human blood cells in laboratory tests.
Dr Sudhir Paul’s team in University of Texas Houston Medical School has found that chemical stimulation of the immune system by electronseeking (electrophilic) proteins is the central step for rectifying the defective antibody response to the CD4 binding site.
The research team claimed that since the structure of the CD4 binding site is very similar in all HIV strains throughout the world, a globally effective HIV vaccine may be possible.
The researchers said that they have developed a synthetic electrophilic vaccine candidate, or E-VAC, which works by focusing the antibody response at the CD4 binding site. The E-VAC is a synthetic portion of gp120 that mimics the shape of the CD4 binding site expressed by the HIV virus. Administration of E-VAC to animals induces antibodies with enzymatic activity, or abzymes.
Additionally, E-VAC administered to mice and rabbits induced the production of blood-borne IgG antibodies that blocked the infection of human cells by genetically divergent HIV-1 strains.
Dr Paul said: “Using an electron-seeking form of gp120, we triggered the production of the crucial IgG antibodies to the CD4 binding site in animals. We believe this method is important in developing an HIV vaccine.”
Alan Kleiman, chairman of the board for the Abzyme Research Foundation, said: “We are backing the research of Dr Paul’s team because his approach using abzymes shows progress in creating an HIV vaccine.”