'New path' for HIV vaccine

Researchers in the US are following a new path in their attempts to find an effective vaccine to prevent HIV.

Scientists at the University of Texas Health Science Centre claim to have created an antigen that induces antibodies to block the infection of human cells by the virus.

The antigen is the first of its kind as it has chemically-activated properties, which have been tested using a mouse model.

Sudhir Paul, senior author of the study, wrote in the Journal of Biological Chemistry that the new antigen should be viewed as a prototype for future work.

He said: "The complexity of HIV has for long thwarted development of an effective HIV vaccine. Our findings open a new path toward an effective preventative and therapeutic vaccine.

"This prototype successfully eliminates nature's restrictions on the production of broadly-neutralising antibodies to HIV by the immune system."

World Health Organisation figures showed that 33 million people had HIV by the end of 2007.

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