Sugars could be the basis for future HIV vaccines, according to researchers in the US.Lai-Xi Wang and colleagues at the University of Maryland in Baltimore have made a compound based on the target of a human antibody known as 2G12. The target is a cluster of carbohydrate chains,rich in the sugar mannose, found on a glycoprotein on the HIV-1 virus surface. 2G12 binds to the cluster and neutralises the virus, so a synthetic compound that mimics this target could stimulate 2G12 production in the body and work as an HIV vaccine.
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