14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new paper in the Journal of Virology, it might be that cats hold the key to developing a vaccine that would protect people against HIV.
Specifically, researchers say that, according to their investigations into the issue, the same virus that causes AIDS in cats triggers an immune response in human T cells when introduced in the blood of HIV-positive individuals.
“Blood from HIV-infected human subjects shows an immune response against a cat AIDS virus protein, a surprise finding that could help scientists find a way to develop a human AIDS vaccine,” researchers with the University of Florida and the University of California, San Francisco, reportedly said in a statement.
Writing in the October issue of the Journal of Virology, scientists detail that this cat virus is known as FIV (the feline immunodeficiency virus).
It appears that, when in HIV-positive human blood samples, certain peptides present in the cat virus' makeup can prompt the production of specialized T cells that are able to attack and take down HIV.
The researchers made this discovery after incubating T cells collected from HIV-positive individuals with various peptides taken from both human and feline AIDS viruses. Their goal was to determine how the T cells responded to the presence of either of these peptides.
“Surprisingly, we have found that certain peptides of the feline AIDS virus can work exceptionally well at producing human T cells that fight against HIV,” researcher Janet Yamamoto explains.
“We found that one particular peptide region on FIV activated the patients’ T cells to kill the HIV,” the researcher further details on her and her colleagues' findings.
Although further research is needed, the researchers believe that, in time, their findings could lead to the development of a vaccine that would successfully fight HIV infection in human patients.
“We are now employing an immune system approach that has not been typically utilized to make a vaccine. The possible use of the cat virus for this vaccine is unique,” Janet Yamamoto with the University of Florida stresses.