Vaccine In Monkeys Clears HIV-Like Virus

Daniel 12:4 NLT “But you, Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal up the book until the time of the end, when many will rush here and there, and knowledge will increase."

A report in the journal Nature shows that monkeys can be cleared of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) through the use of a new vaccine.

The vaccine cleared the virus from 9 of 16 inoculated monkeys. The scientists say the process now provides a blueprint for testing a vaccine for HIV in humans.

“It’s always tough to claim eradication – there could always be a cell which we didn’t analyze that has the virus in it,” Professor Louis Picker of Oregon Health and Science University told the BBC. “But for the most part, with very stringent criteria… there was no virus left in the body of these monkeys.”

The research team from OHSU looked at an aggressive form of SIVmac239 which is 100 times more deadly than HIV. Infected monkeys usually die within two years but the virus did not take hold in some inoculated primates. Some of the inoculated monkeys were clear of infection three years later.

The vaccine is based on another virus in the herpes family called cytomegalovirus.

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