Washington (H24N). Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have found a way to contain simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in monkeys, a virus most believe to be the precursor to HIV.

The findings, reported this week in Nature, show that a vaccine targeting a functional protein in the SIV makeup called Tat, can trigger an immune response significant enough to fight the infection.

The 18 monkeys that were vaccinated and subsequently exposed to SIV in the experiment showed no sign of the original SIV in their systems four weeks after exposure. There was, however, a genetically altered SIV strain left in their system.

"If ongoing work by these investigators shows that vaccinating monkeys with SIV Tat induces a massive killer T-cell response that can prevent infection or substantially reduce the amount of virus in monkeys, research on HIV vaccines that incorporate similar targets will be stimulated," said Peggy Johnston, Ph.D., assistant director for AIDS vaccines with the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Anthony Fauci, MD, NIAID director, was also encouraged by the findings. "The results suggest that using vaccines that stimulate immune responses against virus proteins produced within a few hours after infection, such as Tat, may help control HIV," he said.

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