91
percent
Portion of HIV strains
targeted by VRC01 &
VRC02 antibodies
79
percent
Portion of strains
targeted by PG9
antibody
73
percent
Portion of strains
targeted by PG16
antibody
Fish oil may fend
off breast cancer
Other supplements studied
show no signs of protection
By Nathan Seppa
A large survey of postmenopausal women
has found that fish oil may guard against
breast cancer. Though the study wasn’t
designed to show a cause-and-effect
relationship, an upcoming trial of fish oil
consumption may clarify the issue.
Meanwhile, 14 other over-the-counter
dietary supplements showed no apparent
benefit against breast cancer, researchers
report in the July Cancer Epidemiology,
Biomarkers & Prevention.
regarding diet, supplement intake, exercise habits and overall health and life-style. The analysis included more than
35,000 postmenopausal women who
didn’t have breast cancer at the study
outset. By the end of 2007, 880 of the
women had developed breast cancer.
Women who reported taking fish oil at
the start of the study were roughly half
as likely as nonusers to develop ductal
carcinoma of the breast, the most common form of breast cancer. Fish oil didn’t
affect the risk of lobular breast cancer.
“It seems to me that this is not a fluke
or a false-positive finding,” says epidemiologist Timothy Rebbeck of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Three antibodies shown to block HIV
Find may suggest new, if challenging, path to AIDS vaccine
By Nathan Seppa
Scientists have discovered three previously unknown human antibodies that
neutralize HIV, including two that target
a broad range of HIV strains. Reported
online July 8 in two papers in Science,
the findings come less than a year after
another team discovered two other antibodies that bind to and neutralize HIV.
AIDS vaccine research may get a jump-start thanks to the new discoveries. “The
path forward isn’t as clear as we’d like it to
be, but we are turning a corner,” says viral
immunologist David Montefiori of Duke
University Medical Center in Durham,
N. C., who wasn’t involved in the research.
Nearly everyone infected with HIV
makes some antibodies to it. But while
HIV antibodies have been detected since
the 1990s, none have had the properties
to serve as a cornerstone around which
to build a vaccine.
The newer antibodies might be
made of tougher stuff. One in particu-
lar, called VRC01, displays potency and
broad coverage across HIV strains, says
Peter Kwong, a structural biologist at the
National Institute of Allergy and Infec-
tious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., who
coauthored both new reports.
www.sciencenews.org
July 31, 2010 | science news | 13
