Unmasking gp120

Although more than 50 different preventive HIV vaccine candidates have entered clinical trials since 1987, none has been approved. A newly discovered region of HIV gp120 could revive interest in what was one of the original vaccine targets, because it is exposed, semi-conserved and highly sensitive to monoclonal antibodies.

"Previous vaccines have used one or two gp120 sequences," said Abraham Pinter, head of the laboratory of retroviral biology at the Public Health Research Institute. "Evidence shows that these have been able to induce antibodies against potential neutralization sites, such as the V3 and CD4-binding domains."...