By: Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
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Fri Jul 9, 2010 6:46am EDT
(Pic)- Medical personnel working with Medecin de Monde conduct HIV tests at Ouidah's hospital near Cotonou, Benin November 28, 2007. Reuters/Jacky Naegelen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have discovered antibodies that can protect against a wide range of AIDS viruses and said they may be able to use them to design a vaccine against the fatal and incurable virus.
The bodies of some people make these immune system proteins after they are infected with the AIDS virus, when it is too late for them to do much good. But a properly designed vaccine might help the body make them much sooner, the researchers reported in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
"I am more optimistic about an AIDS vaccine at this point in time than I have been probably in the last 10 years," Dr. Gary Nabel of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
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