Vitaly Ganusov, assistant professor of microbiology, recently had a paper accepted for publication in the highly-ranked journal PLoS Computational Biology. The paper is entitled “Broad CTP Response in Early HIV Infection Drives Multiple Concurrent CTL Escapes.” The paper is significant because Ganusov describes an advance in finding a vaccine for HIV.
The evolution of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to avoid recognition by human immune T cell responses (so-called escape) impairs the ability of the host to control the infection, and it is one of the major hurdles in the development of efficient vaccines against HIV. This new work suggests that T cell responses may be much more efficient at control of HIV replication than previously recognized, implying that vaccination by inducing a broad T cell response may be a novel approach to control the virus.