No -
if you read the actual Science article you'll notice that they only used the loxP-LTR fusion as a starting poitn to evolve an enzyme they dubbed 'Tre' which can recognize HIV LTRs. They wind up demonstrating that it can excise HIV from a genome. Seriously, CRE recombination has been around for decades. If they had simply shown that CRE can excise an HIV genome flanked by lox sites, it wouldn't have been in Science.
It is highly improbable that the mutation rate in that part of the genome is lower. The b12 epitope overlaps with part of the CD4 binding site (the point of the Nature article referenced by the BBC report), it is thought to be functionally important for engaging the receptor, mutations in the region are therefore selected against. It is a weak spot in HIV's defense against the host, but not 'weak DNA' which suggests, at least to me, that the DNA is somehow brittle. At any rate, the weak spot is the accessibility of the gp120 epitope to neutralizing antibodies, and that is the weakness that people want to exploit.
The story that is referenced in the BBC news article refers to the structure of an antibody binding the gp120 surface glycoprotein of HIV. This has nothing to do with 'weak' DNA.
The reason why this is exciting is that the b12 region is relatively invariable, whereas most antibodies made against HIV bind variable regions of the surface glycoproteins that are prone to change from virus to virus as the genome is mutated. The majority of anti-HIV antibodies are therefore only useful against specific isolates and can be easily escaped by mutation. Antibodies against the b12 region are therefore potential vaccine candidates.
Slashdot Mirror
No - if you read the actual Science article you'll notice that they only used the loxP-LTR fusion as a starting poitn to evolve an enzyme they dubbed 'Tre' which can recognize HIV LTRs. They wind up demonstrating that it can excise HIV from a genome. Seriously, CRE recombination has been around for decades. If they had simply shown that CRE can excise an HIV genome flanked by lox sites, it wouldn't have been in Science.
It is highly improbable that the mutation rate in that part of the genome is lower. The b12 epitope overlaps with part of the CD4 binding site (the point of the Nature article referenced by the BBC report), it is thought to be functionally important for engaging the receptor, mutations in the region are therefore selected against. It is a weak spot in HIV's defense against the host, but not 'weak DNA' which suggests, at least to me, that the DNA is somehow brittle. At any rate, the weak spot is the accessibility of the gp120 epitope to neutralizing antibodies, and that is the weakness that people want to exploit.
The story that is referenced in the BBC news article refers to the structure of an antibody binding the gp120 surface glycoprotein of HIV. This has nothing to do with 'weak' DNA. The reason why this is exciting is that the b12 region is relatively invariable, whereas most antibodies made against HIV bind variable regions of the surface glycoproteins that are prone to change from virus to virus as the genome is mutated. The majority of anti-HIV antibodies are therefore only useful against specific isolates and can be easily escaped by mutation. Antibodies against the b12 region are therefore potential vaccine candidates.