Throughout history, vaccines provided the best weapon against infectious disease.
But so far, there is no vaccine for HIV,
the virus that has killed an estimated 36 million people in thirty years.
The ultimate goal is to generate an effective, and also safe, HIV vaccine.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers are collaborating on a new approach
to an HIV vaccine.
The project combines the efforts of the Department of Chemistry and the
Nebraska Center for Virology.
So we can bring the strategy in different fields together and I think that is
the beauty of this project.
Vaccines use a dead or weakened form of a virus to trigger an immune response.
Protective antibodies are developed that fight off infection.
But that approach doesn't work with HIV because the disease replicates too fast.
That's why we try to put an additional safety lock on this HIV.
That is what our technology is about.
The research team alters the virus's genetic code so it can't reproduce without
access to a specific chemical compound.
The vaccine provides the compound, which allows the virus to replicate just long
enough for the immune system to produce antibodies.
Once the compound is gone, the virus can no longer reproduce.
You can look at it as a switch to switch on or off the replication of HIV.
The principal investigators are excited by the possibilities.
We are in hope of not just applying the technology to [the] HIV vaccine,
also potentially apply to producing vaccines for other viruses.
Support for the project comes from a $1.9 million grant awarded by the
National Institutes of Health.
Researchers hope their work will lead to an effective vaccine that can end
the HIV pandemic.