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July 5, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Los Alamos Scientists Suggest Ways to Develop Vaccines" Associated Press (www.ap.org) (07/04/02)

At the request of the National Institutes of Health, Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers, together with scientists from Duke University, Harvard School of Public Health, and the University of Alabama, have been studying the genetics of different strains of HIV in hopes of developing an AIDS vaccine. Based on the fact that HIV strains around the world are genetically different, the researchers determined it would be best to use a genetic ancestor of the virus, with the most commonly found amino acids in various viruses, to develop a vaccine.  Using a locally available strain as the basis, they said, would only make that vaccine effective in areas where that strain were active.  The researchers also suggested the use of a "vaccine cocktail" to help make the vaccine more effective and combat the virus' mutation into a resistant strain.

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