Click to download/open (MP3) The search for a vaccine against
HIV/AIDS has been disappointing, in part because the virus
cleverly changes to elude the antibodies of the human immune
system. Now, scientists have identified antibodies that may be
effective against a broad range of HIV mutations. Vaccines work
by stimulating the body's own immune system to mount a defense
against disease. But the human immune system just isn't very
good at fighting off an HIV infection, in part because the virus
is constantly mutating. That's been a big obstacle to developing
an HIV vaccine, as Laura M. Walker of the Scripps Research
Institute in California says. "For HIV, current vaccines,
because of the variability of the virus, don't induce antibodies
that are able to recognize many different virus strains. And
therefore, they usually are not very effective in preventing
infection or preventing disease." But Walker and her colleagues
identified rare antibodies that were effective against a large
number of the virus variations