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Could Primates Hold Key to AIDS "Vaccine?"
Jim Burress (2009-08-11)
ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - Most vaccines trigger the body's immune system to protect against infection. But HIV the virus that causes AIDS directly attacks the immune system. That leaves it impaired and unable to effectively fight.

Dr. Jim Else of Emory's Yerkes Primate Research Center says we might find the answer by looking to non-human primates. Instead of fighting SIV, a similar disease, the primates just live with it. Else uses a war analogy to explain the approach.

"We'll tell our soldiers to stop attacking you if you at the same time agree to stop killing our soldiers."

The soldiers, in this case, represent the body's immune system.

Else says it's not exactly known why most primates live normally with the virus.

The recommendations appear in the August issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

Jim Burress, WABE News.
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