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A new vaccine made of DNA has shown promising results in controlling HIV in monkeys. Initial results indicate that the vaccine was able to keep the monkeys healthy after they were infected with HIV, maintaining a low viral load so that HIV was undetectable in their blood.

Eight rhesus monkeys were injected with DNA that included two HIV genes and then infected with HIV. The eight control monkeys that received a sham vaccine became ill within weeks, while the vaccinated monkeys lived for 140 days the duration of the test-- with no detectable virus in their blood, no immune system deterioration, and no indications of poor health. Dr. Gary Nabel, director of vaccine research at National Institutes of Health, said that although caution is needed when applying these findings to humans, the study "shows for the first time that by vaccinating in an appropriate way we can alter the course of HIV infection in terms of its ability to cause disease." A key discovery that led to the vaccine research was the discovery that killer T-cells, or CD8 cells, attack not a virus, but cells that have been infected by the virus. Letvin used this knowledge to induce monkeys to produce CD8 cells through the DNA vaccine. The new vaccine, which included components provided by Merck & Co., prompted the infected monkeys to use up to 30 percent of their CD8 cells to fight HIV, instead of between 5 percent and 10 percent.

Editor's Note: from The New York Times