Researchers will test in monkeys one Brazilian vaccine against HIV, from the second half.
The prediction is that the experiments lasting 24 months, and the goal is to find a more effective method of immunization against AIDS to be used in humans, the statement said the agency FAPESP.
The immunizing contained in the vaccine was developed and patented by scientists at the Faculty of Medicine, USP, and christened HIVBr18. The project began in 2001 and was developed by three researchers - Edecio Cunha Neto, Jorge Kalil and Simone Fonseca.
The current stage of preclinical testing, to be held in the second half, will be made in a colony of rhesus monkeys maintained by the Instituto Butantan. The advantage of doing the tests, according to the Agency FAPESP, is the similarity between the human immune system and monkeys, and the fact that they are susceptible to SIV, which gave rise to HIV.
Scientists estimate that, at the current stage of development, the vaccine should not completely eliminate HIV from the body, but it could keep the load of virus infected reduced to the point one does not develop immunodeficiency and not transmit the virus.
