One step closer to an HIV vaccine?

By Eloise Horsfield

SCIENTISTS in Spain have made an exciting new discovery in the fight against HIV and Aids.

Researchers at in the IrsiCaixa Aids Research Institute in Barcelona have discovered the molecule that spreads the HIV virus around the body once it has entered the bloodstream.

Ganglioside-membrane molecules penetrate cells in the immune system, spreading the HIV virus to the body’s main infection-fighting centre – the lymph glands.

Dr Buenaventura Clotet, who has led the team through their three-month research, said the new drugs created as a result of this study will be more efficient.

Fascinatingly, the study’s findings could help create drugs which eradicate the virus completely as well as a possible anti-HIV vaccine – although this could take several years.

Dr Clotet took the opportunity to publically criticise the large cuts planned by the PP government in health and research.

“The excellence of the research in Spain has not been created in two days, but it could all be thrown away in two days,” he said.