Cow’s Milk To Contain HIV-Disabling Antibodies
This is definitely interesting news but apparently is part of a growing area of science research but it seems that Australian biotech company Immuron Ltd, along with a team of scientists led by Dr. Marit Kramski have managed to vaccinate pregnant cows with an HIV protein which then causes the cow’s to produce a ‘first milk’ after giving birth it contains HIV-disabling antibodies.
Before you freak out thinking about all those HIV infected cows running all over the fact is that cows cannot contract HIV but they do produce antibodies in response to any foreign protein.
The interesting part is that in laboratory tests the scientists found that the milk-derived HIV antibodies would bind with HIV and inhibit it from entering human cells.
However don’t expect this discovery to show up as the next cure in the fight against HIV as the scientists have slightly different plans for their discovery.
The HIV-inhibiting antibodies from cows’ milk will be developed into a cream called a microbicide that is applied into the vagina before and /or after sex to protect women from contracting sexually transmitted infections. Other microbicides are being developed around the world but the antibodies in this research are easier and cheaper to produce, providing a new HIV-prevention strategy.
“We hope that our anti-HIV milk antibodies will provide a user-friendly, female-controlled, safe and effective tool for the prevention of sexually acquired HIV infection,” Marit said.
via Fresh Science
Right the scientists are drawing up their guidelines and plans for animal and human trials.
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Steven Hodson Steven has been around the tech world long enough to see most of the stuff we think of cool happen before which leads to a certain bit of cynicism that has contributed to him being known as the cranky old fart of the Internet. Besides sharing some of the goodness that he finds with you here at 42x you can also find him curating some digital goodness at Winextra (tech type stuff) and Rotten Gumdrops (for your daily dose of WTF).
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