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The scientists involved in the study are currently trying to make a T-cell based vaccine against HIV. T-cells are very important to the body's immune system. They are a type of white blood cell tasked with fighting off infection. During the first stages of HIV, T-cells work to eradicate the virus. However, many T-cells are destroyed in the later progression of the disease, weakening a person's immunity. The T-cell based vaccine the scientists are working on stimulates an immune response in T-cells from HIV positive people against the feline AIDS virus.
Why cats? Tiny proteins called T-cell peptides help direct T-cells to distinguish viral peptides on the outsides of infected cells. Only certain types of HIV peptides can be used in vaccines. Janet Yamamoto, an author of the study and professor of retroviral immunology at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, explains that some peptides in humans either "enhance HIV infection," don't do anything, or have anti-HIV fighting properties that "are lost" when the virus mutates. The study's goal was to identify viral peptides from cat AIDS that don't mutate and can stimulate an anti-HIV response in human T-cells. Yamamoto says that "certain peptides of the feline AIDS virus can work exceptionally well at producing human T cells that fight against HIV."
Scientists took T-cells from HIV positive people and incubated them with various peptides necessary to the survival of cat and human AIDS viruses. Next, the researchers compared the T-cells' response to cat AIDS peptides and human AIDS peptides. The results were surprising. A specific "peptide region" on the cat AIDS virus prompted the human T-cells to destroy the HIV. Also, that particular peptide region is found in several other AIDS like viruses in different animal species. Meaning that the region is "so essential that it cannot mutate for the survival of the virus" says Yamamoto.
Yamamoto and her team predict that the cat AIDS virus can be used to identify regions on the human HIV strain effective in vaccines. One thing the researchers want to point out is that their study does not prove that feline AIDS can infect humans but that the two viruses are comparable enough "so that this cross-reaction can be observed," says study collaborator Dr. Jay A. Levy, a professor of medicine at UCSF. Unique to this study, beside the cats, is the researchers' work with a T-cell based vaccine. Never before has an antiviral vaccine been based on T-cells.
Hopefully in the near future citizens around the world can be protected against HIV all thanks to our loveable, furry cats. I myself, being a cat lover, am excited that cats may play an important role in improving the lives of humans worldwide.
References:
Preidt, R. "AIDS virus in cats might help human vaccine effort, study hints." Philly.com. October 3, 2013.
Preidt, R. "AIDS virus in cats might help human vaccine effort, study hints." WebMD. October 3, 2013.
Whiteman, H. "Cats may be key to HIV vaccine." Medical News Today. October 4, 2013.
University of Florida. "UF researchers report cats may be the key to human HIV vaccine." University of Florida. October 1, 2013.
Images
Karin Langner-Bahmann (via Wikimedia Commons).
