From: SusnWayne@aol.com
Message-ID: <4e4d1c4c.35c91b35@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 22:55:42 EDT
To: jt@fuw.edu.pl
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Subject: Questions about HIV
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There is nothing particularly "dumb" about your questions:  on the contrary,
they are astute questions reflecting a good developing understanding of the
complexities of HIV.  They are, in fact, the questions that are at the heart
of, or have led to, ever-greater knowledge about HIV,  and to the development
of several prototype vaccines for both prevention and treatment.  For example,
it is exactly the use of viral proteins and fractions that are used to
stimulate immune responses in most of the current candidate vaccines.  And you
have deduced pretty well the mechanism by which the slowly-shifting balance
between viral burden and antibodies progresses.  

Recently several new findings have been reported separately, though I believe
their ultimate application will link them.  They are the discovery of a "sugar
coat" disguising viral proteins from detection as a "foe";  the genetically-
engineered reduction of that sugar coat recently acheived by a researcher,
and the discovery that dead virus appears to "leak" a chemical that continues
to affect the immune system.  How about a vaccine consisting of dead
attenuated (non-sugar-producing, weakened) HIV?

Whatever the long-term outcome is of HIV-related research, be assured that
your supposedly dumb questions reflect lines of inquiry being pursued in HIV
research right now.

Susan Wayne