Synthetic Molecules Trick Body Into Improved Immune Response to HIV, Cancer

Oftentimes the fatalities caused by diseases like cancer and HIV come not from the disease itself but from the treatments and their side effects. Pneumonia is one of the top causes of death among those with cancer because the chemotherapy causes such a decreased immune system. However, we tend to overlook one of the most important defenses we have: our bodies. Researchers at Yale have created a synthetic molecule that they hope with help give our bodies a fighting chance. These synthetic molecules, such as "antibody-recruiting molecule targeting HIV (or ARM-H) and "antibody-recruiting molecule targeting prostate cancer" (or ARM-P) work by essentially grabbing the diseased cell in one hand and the antibody in the other and bringing them together. But allowing antibodies to bind to these cells like they haven't before, these molecules give our immune system a chance to help in fending off these diseases and decreasing the amount of harmful therapy that we have to undergo.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2009-11/synthetic-molecules-trick-body-immune-response-hiv-prostate-cancer