Chicago - Scientists have developed an anti-Aids vaccine with a weakened rabies virus and tested it successfully in mice.
The scientists, at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, hope their work will lead to a vaccine against HIV, the virus that causes Aids.
Their findings will be detailed at the end of March in Washington's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, project leader Roger Pomerantz said.
Traditional vaccines are made with dead or disabled viruses of the disease they are intended to prevent. Attempts to make an Aids vaccine from a killed HIV virus have failed, however.
Effective in HIV-infected mice, the live but weakened rabies virus must now be tested on an extended scale. "We still have to prove it's safe, and it'll work against other HIV strains and in other animals," cautioned Prof Pomerantz. - Sapa