A research team from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston says they are close to developing a vaccine to stop the spread of HIV.
The team, led by Sudhir Paul, the Clinical Immunology Research Center director and several graduate students, hopes to break the tolerance of the HIV virus by using a novel covalent technique instead of the more common non-covalent approach. “We are dealing with really big ideas with my project,” Paul said.
The covalent vaccine method contains chemical extract that binds with cells while ensuring the generation of more antibodies to stop the spread of the virus. This approach may be useful because the virus tends to mutate rapidly — and usually developes immunity to highly active retroviral therapies.
“Covalent binding is like a little bomb on human cells that are responsible for our immunity.” Paul said. “Covalent vaccination stimulates cells to start dividing and they will kill the virus.”
Paul said experiments have shown they can induce cells to produce more antibodies reactive to diverse strains — so infection by all strains of the virus can be stopped. The process involves developing abzymes, antibodies with catalytic activity, to permanently break up thousands of virus molecules, unlike regular antibodies that target only a single molecule.
Paul has been involved in HIV research since 1994. His research of covalent binding and catalytic activity in antibodies prompted him to attempt to create a vaccine for the deadly virus.
“It was a little bit of serendipity on how I ended up researching HIV,” Paul said. “Once I discovered catalytic antibodies 18 years ago, I found out they could be used in intractable diseases like HIV. From there, it was a process of discovering the Achilles Heel, the structurally constant region of HIV.”
Paul is assisted by two graduate students writing their theses on catalytic antibodies.
“Not that many people work with catalytic antibodies, so working with Dr. Paul was a good match for me.” said graduate student Stephanie Planque. “These antibodies break down the coating that HIV uses to infect human cells and are quite significant in HIV and AIDS research.”
The experiments have been met with success when testing on animals. The next step for the research team is to try to test their vaccine on human beings, preferably on the infected and those with symptoms resistant to drugs.
“The problem is in order to test on human beings, we need a huge amount of funding.” Paul said. “We are trying to raise money from both private sectors and government sources and hope to have the vaccine available to the public in five to seven years.”
