Scientists funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases say they have found a possible Achilles heel in HIV that could be a new target for an AIDS vaccine (Nature. 2000;407:386-390).
In studies of monkeys infected with the counterpart of HIV, simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison found that in the early weeks of SIV infection, CD8 killer T cells target a viral protein called tat. Furthermore, within 4 weeks, the virus was forced to mutate its tat gene to such an extent that all of the original infecting virus was replaced by SIV with a mutated tat gene.
The findings suggest that early in infection, the immune system mounts an assault that the virus is unable to tolerate without changing its genetic makeup. The investigators suggest that if a vaccine could induce a tat-targeted response by CD8 . . . [Full Text of this Article]
