Researchers have a pair of new antibodies to HIV--a promising contribution to the efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine.
The new antibodies are the first of their kind to appear in more than a decade, and they appear to target the majority of the thousands of HIV strains.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the role of antibodies is as follows:
Released by the immune system, antibodies are proteins that stick to the surface of a virus and stop it from entering a cell. HIV researchers hope to make a vaccine from a substance -- usually a piece of the virus itself -- that will provoke the immune system into releasing virus-fighting antibodies.
Source: Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
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