Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - Friday, July 9, 2004
Researchers at the Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania said they sought to maximize the immune response to an HIV gene called Gag and succeeded in dramatically stimulating a type of immune system T cells that are responsive to Gag.
Many scientists think the T cells, called CD8+, will be an important key to creating an effective HIV vaccine.
"For a variety of reasons, it may not be possible to create a vaccine that generates antibodies able to neutralize HIV," said Dr. Hildegund C.J. Ertl, immunology program leader at Wistar and senior author on the research.
The next best thing, Ertl said, may be to develop a vaccine that stimulates the production of anti-HIV T cells, such as CD8+, which have been shown in other studies to fight the virus, although they do not prevent infection.
"The new vaccine regimen we tested induced unprecedented levels f T cells in monkeys."
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