Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 51 521 531 at 12.03pm on Wednesday April 9 2003.
Scientists in California have provided the first detailed look at how human antibodies may drive HIV to mutate. The findings, reported last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States, may be key to efforts to develop an effective Aids vaccine.
The team found that HIV-positive patients rapidly develop a strong antibody response against the virus. But the antibodies that disable the germ appear to force it to evolve into new strains that avoid the antibody response and continue to replicate.
Based on tests of 19 patients over 39 months, the results showed that most patients developed a high concentration of antibodies to HIV within a few months. The antibodies continually changed their spectrum of activity to keep pace with the ever-changing virus.
But the virus evolved faster than the antibody response, so that antibodies from the previous months’ samples were ineffective in neutralising new viruses from the same patient.
Source: Aidsmap