Key Points
A vaccine to provide lasting protection has eluded researchers for decades..
This is one of the most pivotal studies in the HIV vaccine field to date, says Glenda Gray, an HIV expert and the president and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council, who was not involved in the study...
A few years ago, a team from Scripps Research and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) showed that it was possible to stimulate the precursor cells needed to make these rare antibodies in people..
This is a scientific feat and gives the field great hope that one can construct an HIV vaccine regimen that directs the immune response along a path that is required for protection, Gray says.. Vaccines work by training the immune system to recognize a virus or other pathogen..
Parts of the virus look like our own cells, and we dont like to make antibodies against our own selves, says Barton Haynes, director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and one of the authors on the paper...
