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Life

Vaccine to fend off HIV moves a step closer

By Roxanne Khamsi

16 August 2006

HOW much better would it be if a simple injection could free HIV-positive people from having to take costly antiviral drugs for the rest of their lives. The virus’s knack of hiding from the immune system has meant that a vaccine to suppress HIV infection has always seemed a distant prospect. Now researchers say they have evidence that a vaccine containing beefed-up immune cells might give the body a real shot at destroying the virus.

In test-tube experiments, Charles Rinaldo of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania and colleagues loaded up immune cells known as helper T-cells with…

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