Progress in HIV/AIDS treatments announced in Italy and USA

Two independent reports have indicated a new target for immunization against HIV/AIDs and a new method of improving on existing drug cocktails. The studies are published in the August 2007 editions of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, respectively.

Researchers from the Instituto Superiore de Sanita in Rome, Italy, claim to have demonstrated for the first time how the HIV-1 Nef viral protein "delivers a one-two punch to the body's innate immune system." Several implications follow from this discovery, according to Maria Giovanna Quaranta, lead author of the article, including the possibility of using Nef proteins to boost or suppress dendritic and natural killer cells.

Gerald Weissmann, the FASEB's editor-in-chief, described the importance of the research, saying: "HIV's relatively rapid evolution has given it an ability to handle all our bodies can throw at it and more." He continued: "now that we know how the viral protein disables the innate as well as the acquired arm of our immune system, we can begin to design decoy proteins or devise new vaccines."