HIV vaccine a step closer? Cows become scientists' aides in developing immunisation!

New Delhi: One of the most deadliest diseases to have gripped the world is HIV/AIDS, which has caused the biggest, long-standing challenge for scientists – a vaccine to cure it.

The research on procuring an effective vaccine is underway and scientists have come quite close to a final result.

Now, in a first for immunisation in a totally unexpected turn of events, scientists are taking help from cows to develop a vaccine that would help tackle HIV.

As per the scientists, cows have the ability to produce special types of antibodies that can neutralise HIV, which humans lack.

When infected with the HIV virus, humans cannot produce the required antibodies to kill it, which is why the HIV vaccine has been a challenge to develop.

According to Time, scientists estimate that only about 20% of people who are infected with HIV produce what are called broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs): naturally occurring antibodies that can defend a cell against the virus. Even among people who do produce them, that production typically starts around two years after infection.

But cows seem to hold the answer. It is believed that cows evolved a supreme immune defence due to their complex and bacteria-packed digestive system.

This is when researchers at the International Aids Vaccine Initiative and the Scripps Research Institute tried immunising cows.

"The response blew our minds," Dr Devin Sok, one of the researchers, told the BBC News website.

The required antibodies were being produced by the cow's immune system in a matter of weeks.

Dr Sok added: "It was just insane how good it looked, in humans it takes three-to-five years to develop the antibodies we're talking about.

"This is really important because we hadn't been able to do it period.

"Who would have thought cow biology was making a significant contribution to HIV," the BBC report said.

Time further reported that the researchers were able to isolate antibodies from the calves and took a closer look. An antibody called NC-Cow 1 was revealed to be especially powerful when it came to attacking HIV.

As per BBC, the results, published in the journal Nature, showed the cow's antibodies could neutralise 20% of HIV strains within 42 days.

By 381 days, they could neutralise 96% of strains tested in the lab.