HIV/AIDS is a global epidemic, affecting the sexual health of millions of people around the world. It is very difficult for the body to even attempt to fight it because the virus mutates in order to get around the body’s normal immune system response. It has been shown, however, that some patients can create very effective antibodies against large areas of HIV mutants, and it is this process that scientists want to identify in order to use some of the techniques to create a vaccine. Were such a vaccine to be created, it would have an unprecedented effect on the sexual wellness and wellbeing of millions of people around the globe who are at risk of the HIV virus either through their lifestyle or the area of the world that they live in.
The team from North Carolina closely analysed the body’s antibodies and the way that they go about trying to attack HIV, watching the process of mutation, followed by new antibodies, followed by further mutation – and so on.
It was after about four years of this study that they noticed some patients finally being able to target the disease’s Achilles heel. Although the virus mutates and can do so in a million different ways, but there are parts of the virus that cannot be changed as they cause the infection. These are the vulnerable parts of the virus and these are the parts that the antibodies can attack, and where scientists can learn a lesson about how to develop vaccines to fight the infectious disease.