Scientists reveal HIV weakness
Ever since HIV was revealed as the infectious agent behind the AIDS epidemic, scientists have been striving to develop a vaccine against the disease. However, the task has proven difficult, because HIV mutates so rapidly.In a new finding that may allow vaccine designers to sidestep part of that obstacle, researchers at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard University have identified sections of an HIV protein where mutations would actually undermine the virus’ fitness — its ability to survive and reproduce.Vaccines that prime immune cells to specifically target those vulnerable regions could prove much more effective than previously tested vaccines, says Arup Chakraborty, the Robert T. Haslam (1911) Professor at MIT and senior author of a paper on the work appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of June 20.Though global HIV infection rates have dropped since 2000, there are still more...