Innovative vaccine design targets HIV’s weak spots
January 9, 2025 | UH News
Iain MacPherson
Since HIV was linked to AIDS in 1983, researchers have struggled to develop a vaccine due to the virus’s rapid mutation, which makes it difficult to create an immune response that can prevent infection. Iain MacPherson, assistant professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), is tackling this problem with a promising new approach. He recently received a $410,813 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine targeting a stable part of the virus.
“Developing an HIV vaccine is one of the most difficult, complex problems in medicine,” MacPherson said. “We’re aiming to engineer an immunogen better capable of protecting people against diverse strains of HIV so we can help stem the spread of HIV.”
MacPherson explained that HIV’s rapid mutations make vaccine development tough. Researchers are focusing on a stable region of the virus’s spike protein to create broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) that can fight multiple strains of the virus.
“If an antibody can bind to that part of the HIV spike protein, it would block the interaction, neutralize the virus, and prevent it from being able to infect someone,” MacPherson said.
More effective vaccine design
MacPherson’s research focuses on accelerating the production of these bnAbs by targeting specific B-cells. The new vaccine design aims to direct the immune system to target specific B-cells that can produce a key antibody, helping them develop it more effectively.
Working with JABSOM Professor Axel Lehrer, MacPherson is using molecular engineering and AI tools to test the vaccine design on humanized mouse models. If successful, the approach could improve vaccines for other viruses like influenza and COVID-19.
A Hawaiʻi native, MacPherson began HIV vaccine research during his postdoctoral studies and joined UH in 2017.
“There’s been a lot of amazing work done in HIV vaccine development and we’re hoping that we can contribute part of the solution to the HIV vaccine problem,” he said.
Read more at JABSOM.
Contact:
Brent Suyama
bsuyama@hawaii.edu
University of Hawaiʻi
Source: https://www.uclahealth.org/news/gregory-victorianne-research-hiv
"Reproduced with permission - University of Hawaiʻi"
University of Hawaiʻi
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