Scientists move closer to HIV vaccine

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say they are one step closer to developing a vaccine against the AIDS virus.

Scientists at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, led by Professor Matthias Schnell, director of the Jefferson Vaccine Center, say they have determined a rabies virus-based vaccine administered to monkeys protected them against the simian equivalent of the human immunodeficiency virus.

The researchers previously showed a rabies-based vaccine expressing HIV and simian immunodeficiency virus antigens was protective against a chimeric HIV-SIV in monkeys. In their study, the researchers said they used highly attenuated rabies virus vaccine vectors to protect against a challenge with highly pathogenic SIV. That type of SIV causes a more similar disease in monkeys compared with human infection with HIV-1. In addition, it is difficult to protect monkeys against an AIDS-like disease after challenge with SIVmac251.

"Although we can't yet block the infection, we showed that we can protect against disease," said Schnell. "We also saw significant antibody activity against the virus, which is promising. In addition, this is a very simple approach that only took two immunizations."

The data were reported in the journal Vaccine.