A MOLECULE that transforms spare antibodies into a weapon against HIV could provide a new way to treat infections.
The human body naturally contains antibodies known as anti-gal, which typically make up 1 per cent of all antibodies in the blood. These help to fight pathogens such as salmonella and Escherichia coli by binding to a sugar on their surface. But unless you are fighting a serious infection, many go unused. “Most of the time these antibodies don’t do much, so we thought it would be useful if we could teach them to recognise HIV,” says Anders Vahlne at…
