P17 ANTIBODIES SHOW PROMISE IN VITRO

Japanese researchers say they have achieved encouraging results in laboratory experiments of targeting HIV with antibodies raised against the p17 antigen, a viral protein with a low mutation rate. Takashi Kurimura and Seiji Kageyama of Osaka University presented the results of their work at a meeting of the Japanese Society of Clinical Virology earlier this month.

The researchers collected anti-p17 antibodies from the blood of AIDS sufferers, purified them and used them to challenge HIV-1 in vitro. Using electron microscopy, they observed the antibodies binding tightly to the virus particles. The virus' ability to infect T lymphocytes was also markedly reduced "to less than one-tenth to one-thousandth" of the infectivity of unchallenged virus. They predicted that a vaccine based on p17 protein could be a useful way of preventing HIV-positive patients from progressing to AIDS.