Is an HIV or Zika Vaccine Coming?
Zika, Ebola, Hepatitis, Dengue, HIV, zombie inducing rabies. Other than flesh-eating bacteria, I have to say viruses are responsible for some of the most terrifying illnesses. But scientists have made some pretty remarkable strides recently for combating or vaccinating against almost any human virus. In fact an HIV or Zika vaccine could even be on the horizon.
An unlikely group of scientists at IBM– yeah the tech giant– say they’ve designed a molecule that could “block” any human virus. The molecule could also block all the different virus strains; which is the hard part about developing medicine or vaccines to target viruses.
Instead of looking for weak spots in the virus DNA to target, the traditional route for developing vaccines, the scientists at IBM looked at the process that causes illness to occur. When a virus passes a molecule called glycoprotein onto a healthy cell which further spreads the virus. The molecule they’ve developed fastens itself to the viruses’ glycoprotein and basically stops the virus from spreading. Kind of like how airport bars water-down booze and basically render them useless.
The IBM scientists say the discovery of this molecule could be used to develop anti-viral wipes and skin products; eventually they hope to find a way to design a vaccine. Now the study says the molecule can “fight off any human virus.” But the only viruses mentioned were Zika, Ebola, and dengue. Which are are certainly top priority given how quickly they spread and manifest. But I saw no mention of HIV, Hepatitis or any of the long-term-maintenance viruses.
Well a research team led by the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases might have found a universal “weak spot” in the HIV virus. Ironically, they seem to have stumbled down the same path. (I would say they shared information, but I’m not exactly enlightened on how sharing scientific research goes when it’s conducted in partnership with private companies– like IBM.) This vaccine research team discovered an antibody which attaches itself to the HIV virus to prohibit the virus from spreading to healthy cells.
The cool part? They discovered the miraculous antibody by studying the blood of a patient who was previously HIV positive before their body started producing the antibody. Researchers hope to use this discovery to eventually vaccinate people before they are exposed to the virus. The antibody could also be used to “train” one’s immune system to target the virus’s weak spot– which I’m assuming would be fore those who have already tested positive for HIV.
Either way, an HIV vaccine is long overdue. Perhaps we have Zika to thank for this new discovery. Without the newly pressing need to develop a Zika vaccine, researchers may not have stumbled on these new methods and molecules. So thanks for spreading to the United States, Zika! Let’s hope this research leads to the development of some new vaccines which can be distributed to the people who need them most.
Follow Randi Nord on TWITTER
Randi Nord lives in Pontiac, Michigan. She is a journalist for the The Fifth Column, co-founder of Geopolitics Alert, and co-hosts a podcast about geopolitics.