[HN Gopher] A Trial HIV Vaccine Triggered Elusive and Essential ...
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       A Trial HIV Vaccine Triggered Elusive and Essential Antibodies in
       Humans
        
       Author : geox
       Score  : 155 points
       Date   : 2024-05-17 15:15 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (corporate.dukehealth.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (corporate.dukehealth.org)
        
       | chasil wrote:
       | > Other features of the vaccine were also promising, most notably
       | how the crucial immune cells remained in a state of development
       | that allowed them to continue acquiring mutations, so they could
       | evolve along with the ever-changing virus.
       | 
       | As I understand it, somatic hypermutation is a process that only
       | occurs within germinal centers.
       | 
       | Is that what is happening here?
        
       | jcims wrote:
       | Animation of how HIV infects a single T-cell
       | 
       | https://vimeo.com/260291607
        
         | obloid wrote:
         | Very interesting, thanks for posting.
        
         | knodi wrote:
         | Wow!
        
           | jcims wrote:
           | The music is amazing.
        
         | taf2 wrote:
         | That is really impressive animation, now I'd love to see this
         | animation updated to include how the Vaccine works
        
         | gen220 wrote:
         | Can you post this as a new submission? I want to read
         | knowledgeable peoples' responses to it! :)
         | 
         | Viruses are incredible. This video does a great job of
         | illustrating how HIV in particular seems to hijack so many
         | essential systems. I now feel like I have a deeper appreciation
         | for why "cures" for viruses are like a holy grail technology -
         | how could you even prevent something like this without
         | collateral damage to some perfectly healthy + necessary
         | process? They're so tangential to how our cells _need_ to work
         | that they 're almost parallel.
        
           | jb1991 wrote:
           | Here you go: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40393107
        
         | liendolucas wrote:
         | For me the most incredible part of the video is the
         | transcription process. Looks like the head of a Turing machine
         | going through the "tape". Really amazing that something like
         | this occurs in the body at a nanometric scale.
        
         | op00to wrote:
         | This video invokes fear in me. Like, those alien machines
         | (viruses) are doing their weirdo stuff countless times a second
         | in my body. Horrifying.
        
           | Terr_ wrote:
           | If it helps, consider that "your body" is the-same-or-more
           | dangerously impressive, with layers of hideously effective
           | defenses to displace or starve or murder anything that gets
           | close, a swarming hive of unfathomable nanotechnology
           | winnowed over millions of years of adversity between the many
           | inheritors of an ancient grey-goo apocalypse.
           | 
           | Just from one eldritch hive-mind to another.
        
             | op00to wrote:
             | I'm not afraid of the viruses per se, I trust in my immune
             | system. It's more the extreme intricacy of the whole damn
             | meatbag. Kinda like looking up at the stars in an ultra-
             | dark environment and seeing more stars than you've ever
             | seen before. I get a little dizzy. Don't get me started on
             | math.
        
               | _Microft wrote:
               | Maybe you are talking about "awe"?
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awe
        
               | op00to wrote:
               | Yup!
        
               | postalrat wrote:
               | That's why I consider biology a type of alien technology
               | that we've been trying to reverse engineer but are still
               | a ways away.
        
           | yazzku wrote:
           | Damn... And proteins are not living organisms, but the video
           | makes them look like autonomous agents and even states thing
           | like "the virus recruits new proteins". Is this mostly an
           | anthropomorphization of the events, or did I miss the
           | relevant episode of biology?
        
             | nwiswell wrote:
             | > Is this mostly an anthropomorphization of the events
             | 
             | Yes.
             | 
             | Basically everything is bumping around until the desired
             | reaction or configuration is obtained. The irrelevant
             | proteins are generally not shown.
             | 
             | The length scales involved are extremely short so the
             | chaotic soup works itself into configuration shockingly
             | quickly.
             | 
             | There are also membranes, vesicles, and organelles (e.g.
             | Golgi) that partition, package, and redistribute proteins
             | so that they tend to be more concentrated where required.
        
               | NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
               | > Basically everything is bumping around until the
               | desired reaction or configuration is obtained.
               | 
               | Dare I say it? _That sounds alot like what we do in the
               | office most of the time._
        
             | op00to wrote:
             | Protein folding freaks me out too.
        
           | deepfriedchokes wrote:
           | The music sure doesn't help!
        
         | ugh123 wrote:
         | There should be yearly awards for good science animations and
         | learning tools like this
        
           | surfingdino wrote:
           | There is https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/small-
           | world-in-mot...
        
         | tejohnso wrote:
         | The level of detail in the knowledge of the process is
         | astounding. Having never studied anything like this, at every
         | stage I kept thinking: how do we know all of this?
        
           | andylynch wrote:
           | Easy, thousands of smart, motivated people, billions of
           | dollars invested and decades of work!
        
           | hansoolo wrote:
           | Watching the video I did indeed feel like "this is insane!"
           | all the way through...
        
         | jimbokun wrote:
         | Feels like a heist movie. Breaking into the cell and hijacking
         | it's machinery to make more of itself.
        
       | ezekiel68 wrote:
       | Very promising outcome. But I wonder they/why we are just
       | learning about this now when it seems that the inoculations
       | occurred in 2017?
        
         | giantg2 wrote:
         | It's not really valuable if the immunity isn't very durable.
         | There are already short duration things like PREP. If it's been
         | 5 years (2019), that's a big deal.
        
           | Traubenfuchs wrote:
           | There is a injectable every 2 months solution now.
           | 
           | https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-
           | appr...
        
             | giantg2 wrote:
             | Yeah, that's why I'm saying years long protection would be
             | a huge shift from the current short term stuff.
        
       | xutopia wrote:
       | I am not an immunologist... I don't understand biology very well.
       | How significant is this? Is it even trustworthy?
        
         | BikiniPrince wrote:
         | The fact they can trigger antibodies on a stable portion of the
         | virus is impressive. Near the end, it sounds like a multi
         | pronged approach is needed to deal with variations. I'm not an
         | immunologist, but it was pretty light. If they are in trials
         | does that indicate they have a white paper?
        
           | giantg2 wrote:
           | "If they are in trials does that indicate they have a white
           | paper?"
           | 
           | I would think they'd have to in order to have the trial. It
           | probably is not for public distribution though.
        
       | carbocation wrote:
       | Does this university press release name-check Cell but not link
       | to the article? A bit frustrating.
        
         | safeharbourio wrote:
         | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.04.033
        
       | hi-v-rocknroll wrote:
       | Perhaps this could be a beneficial prophylaxis. And having
       | another treatment that uses CRISPR to remove the provirus is also
       | an essential to have a durable cure for patients already
       | infected. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-68609297
        
       | rsingla wrote:
       | I wonder about the potential for varied immune responses across
       | different populations.
        
       | PakG1 wrote:
       | I'm not an expert on this stuff at all, so assume I'm stupid and
       | ignorant when I write the following. As I understand it, HIV has
       | actually been useful to develop a delivery mechanism for some
       | therapies that have excellent potential. Would this kind of
       | vaccine cause such therapies to become ineffective?
        
       | ejstronge wrote:
       | Here is the Cell article:
       | https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)00459-8
        
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