一个国际研究小组发现了两种新的强力HIV抗体，为艾滋病疫苗的研究带来了突破性进展。这两种HIV抗体是10多年来发现的首批此类HIV抗体。《华尔街日报》周五的科学专栏会对此进行报导。这两种抗体具有广泛的中和性，也就是说对目前发现的数千种HIV毒株中的大部分都适用。Scripps图为电脑模拟的艾滋病病毒蛋白质模型不过，要研制出任何可能的疫苗仍有很长一段路要走。目前，研究人员必须搞清楚这些抗体是如何与HIV病毒（也就是艾滋病的致病病毒）结合的，并以此作为疫苗研制的基础。因此，动物或人体试验很可能要等到多年后才能进行。不过，新的抗体被认为比以前发现的不多的几种抗体威力要强大的多。它们会与HIV病毒上一个可能更容易接近的部分结合，有望降低疫苗设计的难度。研究报告的高级作者加州斯克利普斯研究所(Scripps Research Institute)的伯顿(Dennis Burton)说，我们希望我们有了一点突破，研究的“旱情”结束了。HIV疫苗的研究一直是现代医学最大的挑战之一，也是最令人失望的领域之一。自1987年以来，已经进行了约100种疫苗的试验，但均未取得明显成功。抗体是由人体免疫系统释放出来的一种蛋白质，它可以与病毒的表面结合，阻止病毒进入细胞。HIV研究人员希望利用某种物质（通常是病毒自身的一部分）研制出疫苗，刺激免疫系统释放抵抗病毒的抗体。到目前为止，已经从美洲欧洲和澳大利亚的HIV阳性患者体内分离出了四种具有广泛中和性的抗体。不过科学家们仍努力在抗体的基础上设计出疫苗。新发现的两种抗体是从非洲的同一个人体内分离出来的。在非洲，新增染病比例很高，最迫切地需要疫苗。这两种抗体据信威力比过去发现的抗体强10倍左右。不过伯顿提醒说，这样的威力不一定就会转化为保护人类的能力。全球对新的HIV抗体的研究已经有些时日了。发现了两种新抗体的研究是由非营利性国际艾滋病疫苗计划(International AIDS Vaccine Initiative)牵头的。该组织为研究提供了大部分经费，经费多来自捐赠，而全球最大的HIV疫苗研究赞助方美国国立卫生研究院(U.S. National Institutes of Health)出资较小部分。Gautam Naik相关阅读默克：FDA扩大艾滋病药物Isentress的使用范围 2009-07-10中国政府计划今明两年向重大科技项目投资628亿元 2009-05-14原声视频：布吕尼担任全球艾滋防治基金会大使 2009-02-13
An international team of researchers has discovered a pair of powerful new antibodies to HIV, providing fresh leads in the quest for a vaccine against AIDS.The two HIV antibodies, reported in a study to appear in the journal Science on Friday, are the first of their kind to have been identified in more than a decade. They are 'broadly neutralizing,' which means they can target most of the many thousands of HIV strains.Any potential vaccine is still a long way off, however. Researchers now have to work out how these antibodies bind to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and use that property as the basis for a vaccine. As a result, animal or human trials are likely to be years away.Nonetheless, the new antibodies are deemed to be much more powerful than the handful of similar ones found before. They attach to a potentially more accessible part of the HIV virus, which could make vaccine design easier.'We hope that we have a bit of a breakthrough and that the drought is over,' said Dennis Burton of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., the senior author of the study.The search for an HIV vaccine has been one of modern medicine's biggest challenges -- and disappointments. There have been about 100 vaccine trials since 1987, but not a single notable success.Released by the immune system, antibodies are proteins that stick to the surface of a virus and stop it from entering a cell. HIV researchers hope to make a vaccine from a substance -- usually a piece of the virus itself -- that will provoke the immune system into releasing virus-fighting antibodies.Until now, four broadly neutralizing antibodies had been isolated from HIV-positive patients in the Americas, Europe and Australia. But scientists have struggled to design a vaccine around them.The newest two were isolated from a single person in Africa, where a high proportion of new infections occur and a vaccine is most keenly needed. The two antibodies are believed to be about 10 times more powerful than the previously discovered ones. But, Dr. Burton cautioned, such power 'doesn't necessarily translate into an ability to protect humans.'A global hunt for new HIV antibodies has been under way for some time. The search that snared the latest two proteins was led by the nonprofit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, or IAVI. IAVI provided most of the funding via its donors, while the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the world's biggest funder of HIV vaccine research, contributed a smaller amount.Gautam Naik