South African HIV scientists are working on a game changer that could impact the spread of HIV across Africa.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim from the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) updated researchers at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on the progress that’s being made in using broadly neutralising anti-bodies to treat HIV.
The super anti-body has been discovered in the DNA of a KwaZulu-Natal woman.
Abdool-Karim says a batch of these anti-bodies is being developed at a cost of about 15-million dollars.
“We will inject this anti body into people in about June next year to establish whether its safe before we proceed to doing a trial to see whether this anti body can protect young women from getting HIV infections. And we want to see if it can protect them because if it does, it’s a game change, this could change the way in which the epidemic is spreading in Africa.”
Sir Gregory Winter, awarded the #NobelPrize in Chemistry, has used phage display to produce new pharmaceuticals. Today phage display has produced antibodies that can neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and cure metastatic cancer. pic.twitter.com/p5fOfo0DwJ
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 3, 2018
