Emory Researchers Offer New Approach For Testing Potential HIV Vaccines

Emory University researchers have proposed a new design for HIV vaccine trials in animals that would more closely mimic how humans are exposed to the virus - potentially giving AIDS researchers a more effective tool in developing successful treatments to prevent HIV infection. In the Emory study, the researchers, using computer simulations, developed an experimental design in which animals are repeatedly exposed to low doses of HIV (similar to how humans are exposed and infected). The belief that experiments involving realistically low challenge doses would require large numbers of animals has so far prevented the development of such trials, the researchers say. Through computer simulations and statistical analysis of their virtual experiments, the Emory researchers showed that such trials would require far fewer animals than previously thought. Their research was published in the July 19 issue of the Public Library of Science Medicine.