Scientists have overcome a major stumbling block in HIV treatment and a vaccine may soon be on its way.
The big hurdle has been the inability to generate immune cells that stay in circulation long enough to stop the AIDS virus spreading.
According to international researchers, the problem has been solved as they have been able to unblock a process linked to an HIV protein that was halting the production of antibody-generating 'B-cells' from the immune system.
Lead author of the study, Professor Jonathan Heeney, from Cambridge University, said that for a vaccine to work, its effects need to be long lasting.
According to him, it is not practical to require people to come back every six 12 months to be vaccinated.
He went on to add that they wanted to develop a vaccine to overcome this block and generate these long-lived antibody producing cells.
“We have now found a way to do this,” Heeney added.
The scientist said that they have been able to manage this and have found a way to greatly improve B-cell responses to an HIV vaccine.
“We hope our discovery will unlock the paralysis in the field of HIV vaccine research and enable us to move forward,” he went on to say while speaking to The Daily Mail.
Laboratory experiments saw that the new approach produced desired immune system responses that lasted more than a year.
According to the scientists, it should be possible to produce vaccines that stimulate long-lasting B-cell responses against HIV.
