Science / Medicine : AIDS Study Uses Polio Virus

Researchers last week reported the development of a possible AIDS vaccine that hooks up a key part of the deadly AIDS virus with a safe polio virus widely used in immunization programs. The potential vaccine was able to disarm a wide range of AIDS viral strains in studies of laboratory rabbits, but it has not yet been tested in humans, the scientists said.

Reporting in the journal Nature, British researchers said they used genetic engineering techniques to tailor a model vaccine consisting of the Sabin polio virus and a protein from the outer membrane of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes AIDS.

A team headed by Jeffrey Almond of England’s Reading University said its custom-made molecule not only neutralized a wide variety of HIV strains in rabbits, but also reduced the virus’s ability to fuse cells into giant non-functional masses.

The researchers speculated that their model employing polio virus may offer “considerable advantages” over other AIDS vaccine models because it might trigger production of antibodies in mucous fluids.