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STUDIES OFFER NEW INSIGHT INTO HIV VACCINE DEVELOPMENT
16 February 2004 - University of Wisconsin-Madison
| Mutations that allow AIDS viruses to escape detection by the immune system may also hinder the viruses' ability to grow after transmission to new hosts, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced this week in the journal Nature Medicine. |
The discovery may help researchers design vaccines that exploit the notorious mutability of HIV by training the immune system to attack the virus where it's most vulnerable. The work appears alongside a study of HIV-infected people performed by scientists at Harvard Medical School and Oxford University. The Wisconsin study's lead author, Thomas Friedrich, is a doctoral student working under the direction of David Watkins, professor of pathology at UW-Madison and senior scientist at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. Watkins' team produced an "escaped" AIDS virus that mimicked events that occur in HIV infection when the virus mutates to become unrecognizable to killer cells known as cytotoxic T-lymphocytes, or CTL. The researchers found that the mutant virus did not grow as well as the original strain. The mutations, while allowing the virus to escape immune recognition, had also weakened the virus. To model the transmission of escaped viruses between people, the team inoculated monkeys with the mutant virus strain. They discovered that most of the escape mutations were lost as the virus grew in the monkeys, often restoring original sequences that killer cells could recognize. Some scientists have theorized that HIV could adapt to the human immune system as the AIDS epidemic develops, becoming less and less recognizable. Watkins said that his group's findings should help allay these fears. The UW-Madison group has been studying immunity to AIDS viruses since the early 1990s. Most recently, the researchers have been studying the ways in which viruses mutate to "escape" recognition by the body's killer cells. Killer cells are white blood cells that perform immune "surveillance" throughout the body, detecting infected cells and eliminating them before the virus can spread. "Over 40 million people are now infected with HIV worldwide, and a vaccine is urgently needed," Watkins said. "We hope that our findings can be used to help design vaccines that show killer cells how to fight the virus most effectively."
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About: University of Wisconsin-Madison
In achievement and prestige, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has long been recognized as one of America’s great universities. A public, land-grant institution, UW-Madison offers a complete spectrum of liberal arts studies, professional programs and student activities. Many of its programs are hailed as world leaders in instruction, research and public service.The university traces its roots to a clause in the Wisconsin Constitution, which decreed that the state should have a prominent public university. In 1848, Nelson Dewey, Wisconsin’s first governor, signed the act that formally created the university, and its first class, with 17 students, met in a Madison school building on February 5, 1849. From those humble beginnings, the university has grown into a large, diverse community, with about 40,000 students enrolled each year. These students represent every state in the nation, as well as countries from around the globe, making for a truly international population. UW-Madison is the oldest and largest campus in the University of Wisconsin System, a statewide network of 13 comprehensive universities, 13 freshman-sophomore transfer colleges and an extension service. One of two doctorate-granting universities in the system, UW-Madison’s specific mission is to provide "a learning environment in which faculty, staff and students can discover, examine critically, preserve and transmit the knowledge, wisdom and values that will help insure the survival of this and future generations and improve the quality of life for all." The university achieves these ends through innovative programs of research, teaching and public service. Throughout its history, UW-Madison has sought to bring the power of learning into the daily lives of its students through innovations such as residential learning communities and service-learning opportunities. Students also participate freely in research, which has led to life-improving inventions from more fuel-efficient engines to cutting-edge genetic therapies. Students, faculty and staff are motivated by a tradition known as the "Wisconsin Idea," described by UW President Charles Van Hise in 1904 as the compelling need to carry "the beneficent influence of the university ... to every home in the state." The Wisconsin Idea permeates the university’s work and helps forge close working relationships among university faculty and students and the state’s industries and government. |
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