By IANS,
London : British medical scientists have devised a test to identify the best potential AIDS vaccines, a newspaper reported Monday.
Early results suggest the test is able to detect not only whether a vaccine will generate a response from the body’s immune system, but also whether this response will actively fight HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the Times reported.
The test, known as a viral inhibition assay, was devised by Imperial College London and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).
It is being evaluated in a phase-one AIDS vaccine trial.
Scientists hope to use the test to check candidate vaccines, helping pick out the most promising for full trials while weeding out ineffective products, the newspaper said.
It said the project will be funded by a 40 million pound grant from Britain’s Department for International Development to IAVI.