Scientists contemplating HIV vaccine made of the virus

The idea was dismissed years ago as too risky a proposition, but scientists in the US are now contemplating to develop an HIV vaccine made of the deadly virus itself.

A team at 'VIRxSYS' of Maryland is planning to inject people with the proposed HIV vaccine, albeit a deactivated version, after successful tests of a similar vaccine against SIV -- simian HIV -- in monkeys, the 'New Scientist' reported.

"We said 'let's use HIV against itself', and that's what we're doing," Gary McGarrity, VIRxSYS's vice president of scientific and clinical affairs, said.

According to the scientists, the new tests in monkeys suggest a vaccine based on HIV itself might be more effective and now they are planning to apply for approval to perform the trials on those people who already carry the virus.

In their experiments on monkeys, the scientists vaccinated monkeys with a vaccine based on a deactivated version of simian HIV called SIV and then six months later injected them with SIV.