darpunsmd

That's a really good question and it's one of the major challenges facing the field. Currently, several HIV vaccine candidates are trying to target highly conserved regions of the HIV envelope (outer structure of HIV). These highly conserved regions do not evolve rapidly like many other parts of HIV. We know that generally speaking in HIV infection broadly neutralizing antibodies often develop, but these antibodies typically do not neutralize virus. The goal at this time in the field is to stimulate broadly neutralizing antibodies that target highly conserved regions of HIV and neutralize the virus.

1. I hope not because I don't know too much about zombies.
2. I read about that but it is not my area of specialization
3. Bridge HIV has been working on HIV vaccine studies since the late 1990s.
4. I see HIV-infected patients every week in my role as an Infectious Disease fellow.
5. So it all starts with an idea in a lab. Scientists conduct experiments that suggest that a particular vaccine candidate may prevent infection or delay progression of HIV. This product is typically tested in non-human primate model. The vaccine candidate then progresses to small human studies testing for safety and then larger human studies testing for safety and efficacy. Eventually a very large randomized clinical trial must be performed to determine if the vaccine candidate works in a given population.

There is no 'good' strain of HIV. A very small minority of indivduals who are HIV-infected are long-term nonprogressors, but many times even these people develop AIDS and require antiretrovirals. We think that long-term nonprogressors may have special genetic and immune responses that alter the normal progression of disease, as opposed to the virus having special properties.

Great question. The cost and delivery of an effective HIV vaccine remains unknown. Typically, once a vaccine is found to be effective governments, international organizations, and private companies work together to pay for and scale up production and delivery of the vaccine.

Recent HIV vaccine research has focused on "structure-based vaccine design" which uses the crystallographic structure of the HIV-envelope epitope to identify the precise binding site of a broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibody. This publication summarizes what we know about broadly neutralizing antibodies that bind to highly conserved regions of HIV. I do not have the PDB file.