Brazil tried a vaccine against HIV in monkeys

Brazilian scientists on August 5 said they have prepared a vaccine to prevent HIV virus that causes AIDS and plans to experiment on monkeys this year.

Illustration.(Source: futurity.org)

Sao Paulo State Research Fund (FAPESP) said a group of scientists from the University of Sao Paulo has developed the HIVBr18 vaccine, which will prevent the development of the virus that causes AIDS.

Scientists say that at this time, vaccines cannot completely remove HIV from the body. However, HIVBr18 is capable of inhibiting HIV, making it not spread from person to person and not strong enough to destroy the immune system. Therefore, the results of testing on monkeys are very much expected.

The team said their goal is to test a variety of immunological methods to choose the most powerful immune response, which underpins the testing of humans. The process of preparing HIVBr18 vaccine was started in 2001.

The reason scientists choose monkeys is the subject of vaccine testing because they have the same immune system as humans.