Having an autoimmune disease like lupus is bad enough. Now try imagining being afflicted with lupus and HIV, the worst autoimmune disease of them all. One woman finds herself in that unlucky position, yet how her lupus responds to her HIV may help researches develop the long awaited HIV vaccine according to the latest research.

Lupus, in a nutshell, makes a person's immune system overreact. Instead of one's body fighting off actual diseases and viruses, lupus actually harms healthy body's cells and tissues that are integral to good health, whereas HIV leads to immune system failure and allows for other ailments to attack the infected person.

Ironically, the 33-year-old woman's comprised immune system actually produces antibodies that attack the HIV virus. Called "broadly neutralizing antibodies" the lupus-derived antibodies are fighting off the woman's HIV infection, effectively keeping the disease in check.

What's interesting is that few HIV-infected people are able to create these antibodies. Dr. Barton Haynes, director of the Duke University Human Vaccine Institute, was the study's lead researcher. He spoke to the good folks over at Live Science regarding this women's highly unusual situation and how it could help HIV vaccine research in the future.

"We found that the patient did indeed make these important antibodies, and by determining how this immune response occurred, we have enhanced our understanding of the process involved." 

He also said that getting these antibodies to, in effect, activate in HIV patients without lupus is a work in progress.

"We wanted to induce this response in people who are not infected with HIV, to protect them, but the body just didn't want to make these kind of antibodies," Haynes said.

The idea that lupus could help combat the ill effects of HIV occurred to Haynes and his team a few years back. 

"It was a clue that the antibody is coming from the same pool of immune cells that give rise to auto-reactive antibodies in autoimmune disease," Haynes remarked.

Just finding someone who had both diseases turned out to be a real bear.

Do you think that anti-bodies present in lupus patients will help those with HIV? Let us know in the comments section below.