Researchers Working On 'Vaccine' That Can Prevent HIV

Scientists have come up with a very promising "alternative vaccine" that can prevent HIV from entering humans immune cells.

Newsweek reports that for a long time, biomedical researchers have tried to develop a vaccine for HIV. Despite years of effort, and some appreciable progress, the attempts have largely been unsuccessful.

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However, in a new development, scientists have come up with a very promising “alternative vaccine”  described in a study published online today by Nature.

The report say, researchers have developed a protein-based treatment that, when given to monkeys, prevents the animals from becoming infected with the simian version of the HIV — SHIV, or simian/human immunodeficiency virus — even when exposed multiple times to very large quantities of the pathogen.

The scientists, at The Scripps Research Institute, also showed that the newly-developed protein inactivates every major strain of HIV tested.

But whether or not this new method will work in humans remains to be seen, though there are reasons to be hopeful: The gene therapy technique has already been shown to be well-tolerated in humans, and the components that make up the new protein have also been shown to be safe.

Ideally the method could be developed into a “vaccine” that could be given to millions to protect them against HIV, though of course it would first need to be shown to be safe in humans.

Meanwhile, four companies will commence the production of HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral drugs in Nigeria soon.

Source: Legit.ng