The vaccine does not prevent infection with the virus, but an experiment on monkeys shows that it prevents the development of signs of the disease and death from it.
20/10/2000
Scientists have developed a protein that prevents the AIDS virus from infecting cells
12/01/2001
American scientists have developed a protein, the
Other teams of scientists around the world are testing more than 70 different AIDS vaccines. One of the vaccines was already approved for human trials in England three months ago. So far, experiments performed on humans have not achieved such positive results. However, Dr. Norman Letvin, who headed the study, believes that his research proved that it is possible to be satisfied with the search for a vaccine that will prevent the outbreak of the disease - instead of trying to prevent infection. Now the research is at the beginning of the human trials phase.
In the experiment, conducted by the Beth Israel Medical Center and Harvard University, 20 monkeys participated - some were injected with the vaccine and some with a dummy vaccine. All the monkeys that received the dummy vaccine got the disease, and half of them died within 140 days. In contrast, the eight vaccinated monkeys were indeed infected, but they managed to moderate the rate of replication of the virus. They also developed T-cells that recognize the cells damaged by the virus and destroy them. Dr. Letvin published his results in an article in the journal "SCIENCE".
If, as a result of the research, a commercial vaccine is developed for humans, Letvin says, it may replace the drug treatment currently given to AIDS patients, which causes severe side effects. This treatment is also extremely expensive, so it is not given to patients in poor countries.
20/10/2000(18:55)
Scientists have developed a protein that prevents the AIDS virus from infecting cells
12/01/2001
American scientists have developed a protein that prevents the AIDS virus from infecting cells - this was announced today (Friday) in a study in the journal "Science".
The protein, known as "helix," 5 prevented the AIDS virus from attaching to a cell's membrane and infecting it with the disease under laboratory conditions. So far no clinical trials have been conducted in humans. The authors of the article, Michael Roth, Michael Kay, and Peter Kim from the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", said that they hope that this discovery will lead to new treatments against the AIDS virus and other viruses. They added that it may also lead to the creation of a vaccine against AIDS, but described this possibility as "remote".
The discovery may greatly help people with AIDS, who do not respond well to the treatments available today, or who have developed resistance to the current drugs.
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