Antibody helped monkeys stave off ‘HIV’ for nearly six months, suggesting alternative to Aids vaccine
Since the outbreak started in the early 1980s, about 71 million people have been infected by HIV, and some 34 million have died.
Just one shot of a lab-produced antibody protected macaques against a sort of monkey HIV for nearly six months, said a study on Wednesday into a potential vaccine alternative.
Exposed to simian HIV (SHIV) once a week, non-treated monkeys contracted the virus after just three weeks on average, the researchers said, whereas the trial monkeys remained virus-free for up to 23 weeks.
In human populations at high risk of contracting the Aids-causing virus, such protection, even temporary, “could have a profound impact on virus transmission,” the team of German and US-based researchers reported in the journal Nature.
They had examined “passive immunisation” as an alternative to an HIV vaccine, which experts fear may still be years off.
A vaccine works by priming the body to respond with germ-fighting antibodies whenever a virus or bacteria invades. It is long-lasting, sometimes for life.
“Passive immunisation” involves the transfer of antibodies generated by one person directly to another to provide protection, which is shorter-lived.