The Scripps Research Institute is reporting on a new way to fight HIV. According to one of lead authors, Chi-Huey Wong, Scripps Research Chemistry Professor, the approach was developed with two ideas in mind:

“This new approach capitalizes on two recent findings in the field of HIV research. One is the discovery that HIV takes a Trojan horse approach to reach cells it needs to infect deep inside the human body. Scientists have described how, when the virus enters the body through sexual contact, it hitches a ride with the dendritic cells of the immune system that stand guard for invaders at the mucosal lining of tissues. The virus outsmarts these cells, however, and latches onto a particular receptor protein, known as DC-SIGN, on the dendritic cells. By sticking to these immune system fighters, HIV manages to evades immune detection while the dendritic cells travel to the ultimate goal of the virus: immune T-Cells in the lymphoid system, which HIV then invades, setting up a deadly infection that spreads.

The second discovery is that an antibody exists that can signal immune destruction of the virus. The antibody, 2G12, protects people who have it against HIV progression, but very few of those who are infected put up such an immune reaction, said the study’s first author, Sheng-Kai Wang, a graduate student in Wong’s laboratory. Scientists at Scripps Research have defined the details of the action of the antibody and found that recognizes a dense cluster if sugars on one region of the virus’s spiky protein coating—which is, strikingly, the same area that HIV uses to bind to the DC-SIGN protein on dendritic cells.”

To achieve the goals of this new approach the group has created glycodendrons. Glycodendrons first set up an immune response because the sugar molecules on the molecule mimic 2G12 prompting the production of destructive antibodies, secondly it binds to the DC-SIGN on dendritic cells preventing HIV from piggybacking deeper into the body.

This new method to tackle HIV is smart and elegant and addresses the other lead authors, Dennis Burton, past commentary. Dennis Burton’s criticized VaxGen’s HIV vaccine trial because he believed you should not just try anything and that no science existed behind the companies vaccine candidate. Besides VaxGen, many other groups have tried to tackle this issue but typically have used little intelligence behind the vaccine development. This new idea, using intelligent design, is very exciting and hopefully will have continued success. Read more about this research in this weeks online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).