Canberra - Australian scientists say they have created a vaccine which enables monkeys to fight off the HIV virus, and plan to start testing it in humans next year. "It looks good so far. We just hope that it holds up when we get a chance to test it (in humans)," Dr Alistair Ramsay, an immunologist at Australian National University, said.
Researchers separately administered two vaccines, one to prime the immune system and another to boost it into action, before infecting four monkeys with the HIV virus. The monkeys were initially infected but produced large numbers of killer T-cells to clear the virus from their system within weeks. Four unvaccinated monkeys contracted the virus, which causes AIDS in humans but not in monkeys. The researchers described their work in the US-based Journal of Virology.