Synthetic Molecules Trick Body Into Improved Immune Response to HIV, Cancer
When it comes to eluding detection, HIV and cancer cells are at the top of the class. As such, the few treatments currently available to sufferers of HIV or prostate cancer are generally expensive, often hard to manufacture, and come packaged with a smattering of unpleasant side effects. But Yale researchers have now developed synthetic molecules that help the body recognize HIV and prostate cancer cells as threats, tricking the body into initiating an immune response that it normally would not. Both HIV and prostate cancer have biological methods of flying under the immune system's radar, cruising throughout the body without raising red flags. But the Yale group's synthetic molecules -- known as "antibody-recruiting molecule targeting HIV (or ARM-H) and "antibody-recruiting molecule targeting prostate cancer" (or ARM-P) -- bind both to antibodies already present in the bloodstream and to the offending cells at the same time. Related ArticlesFor the First Time Ever,...