AIDS virus weakness detected (Reuters)

[Up2Late]

(This sounds like GREAT News to me! And to all those here who have already lost loved ones to AIDS, I feel your pain. I lost my Best Friend to AIDS July 15, 2006.
R.I.P. Randy.)

AIDS virus weakness detected

Wed Feb 14, 2007 4:19PM EST

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have captured an image of the AIDS virus in a biological handshake with the immune cells it attacks, and said on Wednesday they hope this can help lead to a better vaccine against the incurable disease.

They pinpointed a place on the outside of the human immunodeficiency virus that could be vulnerable to antibodies that could block it from infecting human cells.

U.S. National Institutes of Health researcher Peter Kwong said the study, published in the journal Nature, may reveal HIV's long-sought "site of vulnerability" that can be targeted with a vaccine aimed at preventing initial infection.

"Having that site and knowing that you can make antibodies against it means that a vaccine is possible," Kwong said in a telephone interview. "It doesn't say we've gotten there. But it's taken it off the list from an impossible dream and converted it to something that is a (mere) technical barrier."

(more at link) <http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1438308620070214?src=021407_1609_ARTICLE_PROMO_also_on_reuters>