Scientists make HIV strain that can infect monkeys

[mercurial]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have created a strain of the human AIDS virus able to infect and multiply in monkeys in a step toward testing future vaccines in monkeys before trying them in people, according to a new study.

This strain of HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, was developed by altering a single gene in the human version to allow it to infect a type of monkey called a pig-tailed macaque, the researchers said on Monday.

The genetically engineered virus, once injected into this monkey, proliferates almost as much as it does in people, but the animal ultimately suppresses it and the virus does not make it sick, they said.

The strain is called simian-tropic HIV-1, or stHIV-1.

Researchers hope to be able to test possible new AIDS drugs and vaccines in monkeys before trying them in people.

There is a "cousin" virus to HIV called SIV, or simian immunodeficiency virus, that causes a disease similar to AIDS in certain types of monkeys.

But this monkey AIDS virus is not identical to the one that infects people and is not a perfect substitute for testing drugs and vaccines against HIV.

"If our research is taken further, we hope that one day perhaps in the not-too-distant future, we'll be able to make vaccines that are intended for use in humans and the very same product will be able to be tested in animals before human trials," Paul Bieniasz of the Rockefeller University in New York, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview.

Full article

 

[mOOey]

I wonder how people would feel if some alien race, who consider themselves superior to us, started using humans to test their drugs before using it on their own race.

 

[Keeper]

I wonder how people would feel if some alien race, who consider themselves superior to us, started using humans to test their drugs before using it on their own race.

So do you think animal testing should be banned?

if you do, then stop taking any form of medication, for the rest of your life.

no?...didn't think so

PS: I almost never, ever use any form of pills or medication - The worst I get is probably 1 headache a year. but for the rest of you sick people out there, be grateful for it.

 

[ndoda25]

I wonder how people would feel if some alien race, who consider themselves superior to us, started using humans to test their drugs before using it on their own race.

Maybe thats what they did and moved on and forgot about us.