HIV vaccine

[dstebbins]

HIV is neigh impossible to create a vaccine for, largely due to the fact that it mutates so fast that, by the time a vaccine has been created and shipped out to all the pharmacies, it's already obsolete.

 

However, HIV is a small virus, right? I mean, anything that can seep through your sweat pores has to be small. Therefore, it can't possibly have as many nucleotides as, say, the flu.

 

So, by that logic, can't we just create a vaccine for every single possible incarnation of the HIV virus, and group all of those cells into a single, comprehensive set of vaccines? Keep in mind that you only need one HIV cell injected into your system to constitute a vaccine. A cell as small as HIV, you can probably store millions of of them in a single syringe. About ten or twelve injections should do the trick.

 

Thoughts?

Edited October 17, 2010 by dstebbins

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

However, HIV is a small virus, right? I mean, anything that can seep through your sweat pores has to be small. Therefore, it can't possibly have as many nucleotides as, say, the flu.

 

All viruses are small enough to get out of pores. The question is whether they'll survive once they're out there -- sunlight is pretty harsh. Also, it depends on if the virus particles end up in your sweat glands, I suppose.

 

How would we create a vaccine for every possible version of HIV? Random mutations in the genome make it very hard to predict what HIV will look like next. You might as well ask if we could create a vaccine for every possible virus.

[Greippi]

To go RIGHT to basics: when you start looking at the numbers, you will soon realise this is unfeasable.

The genome of HIV is nearly 10,000 base pairs long (influenza is 12,000). To mutate every single base in every possible combination..well I can't even be bothered to do the maths. It's ludicrous.

Sure, there are certain segments of the genome that code for proteins that are detected by the immune system, which narrows it down a bit. But the number of permutations would just be insane.

[Dak]

dunno if this counts as necroposting -- this forum seems to move slowly.

 

the bit the antibody would recognize would be narrowed down to part of the gp120 or gp41 molecule, which significantly narrows down the number of mutations (env, which codes for both gp160 and gp41, is only 1,500 bp long).

 

However, for reasons which are a bit hard to explain without pictures, the antibodies to gp120 have a bit of a tendancy to stick to other, native molecules. Possibly because of this, the immune system has a tendancy to make antibodies that stick to anti-HIV-antibodies, and they have a tendancy to stick to CD4, at which point the immune system attacks it's CD4+ cells, causing AIDS. So i'm not sure your idea is safe.

 

there are some less-variable regions of the gp120 molecule that are being targeted by research.