Novel HIV Vaccine Prevents Disease in Monkeys
US researchers are calling it a “Big Deal.” Next year, human clinical trials could begin on a novel AIDS treatment that alters DNA, turning cells into HIV fighters. The treatment has completely protected monkeys from a primate version of the immune disorder.
Researchers are engineering healthy muscle cells to induce them to crank out genetic instructions that could potentially neutralize HIV, the virus that causes AIDS in humans.
Scientists at Scripps Research Institute used the technique to completely protect rhesus macaque monkeys whose immune systems were repeatedly exposed to simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, a primate version of HIV.
After treatment, Scripps researcher Michael Farzan says the macaques never became infected despite the challenge.
Traditional vaccines train the immune system to recognize and destroy microbial invaders. But experimental AIDS vaccines fail because the virus is continually changing its appearance to evade destruction.
Farzan, the study’s lead investigator, says the new approach tricks HIV into revealing a key viral surface protein. The compound targets the portion of the virus that is always mutating to avoid the immune system.
