AIDS protein engineered.AIDS protein engineered National Institutes of Health researchers in Bethesda, Md., have coaxed vaccinia virus vaccinia virus n. A virus of the genus Orthopoxvirus used in the immunization against smallpox. , used in smallpox smallpox, acute, highly contagious disease causing a high fever and successive stages of severe skin eruptions. The disease dates from the time of ancient Egypt or before. vaccinations, to produce an AIDS virus AIDS virus n. See HIV. protein. The feat will allow them to analyze the protein's vaccine potential. The AIDS virus gene that codes for the viru's protein envelope was inserted into the vaccinia virus by a technique that is already being used to produce proteins from other pathogens (see p. 232 and SN: 6/15/85, p. 379). "What we've done is to make a recombinant virus that expresses the protein," says Bernard Moss, one of the researchers. "Now we can ask questions that may be pertinent to making a vaccine." Mice inoculated with the recombinant virus produced antibodies to the AIDS protein, the scientists report in the April 10 NATURE. But further work is needed to determine whether it can be used as a vaccine, Moss notes. Among the questions are whether it will raise antibodies in primate systems as well, whether those antibodies are capable of neutralizing the virus and whether the antibodies will be effective against different strains of the virus. The recombinant virus would not help people with AIDS The People With AIDS (PWA) Self-Empowerment Movement was a movement of those diagnosed with AIDS and grew out of San Francisco. The PWA Self-Empowerment Movement believes that those diagnosed as having AIDS should "take charge of their own life, illness, and care, and to minimize , he notes, because their immune systems immune system Cells, cell products, organs, and structures of the body involved in the detection and destruction of foreign invaders, such as bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Immunity is based on the system's ability to launch a defense against such invaders. are already damanged. |
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