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Phoenix666 writes:

A new study from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) shows that "holes" in HIV's defensive sugar shield could be important in designing an HIV vaccine.

It appears that antibodies can target these holes, which are scattered in HIV's protective sugar or "glycan" shield, and the question is now whether these holes can be exploited to induce protective antibodies.
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In the 1990s, scientists discovered that HIV can have random holes in its protective outer shell of glycan molecules. Until now, however, scientists weren't sure if antibodies could recognize and target these holes.

Researchers at Cornell and TSRI had previously designed a stabilized version of an important HIV protein, called the envelope glycoprotein (Env) trimer, to prompt rabbit models to produce antibodies against the virus. In the new study, the plan was to reveal HIV's vulnerabilities by examining where the antibodies bound the virus.

The hope is that they can use the holes in HIV's sugar shield to defeat the immune system, as it were, of the virus that defeat's the human immune system.

Original Submission