Scientists develop vaccine that temporarily brakes HIV

In this Sept 1, 2012 photo, an HIV-infected woman (centre) receives medication through an intravenous drip after she fainted, as another HIV patient (right) is also treated in a hut shared with other HIV patients at an HIV/Aids hospice on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar. A team of Spanish researchers say they have developed a therapeutic vaccine that can temporarily brake growth of the HIV virus in infected patients --PHOTO: AP

MADRID (AFP) - A team of Spanish researchers say they have developed a therapeutic vaccine that can temporarily brake growth of the HIV virus in infected patients.

The vaccine, based on immune cells exposed to HIV that had been inactivated with heat, was tested on a group of 36 people carrying the virus and the results were the best yet recorded for such a treatment, the team said.

"What we did was give instructions to the immune system so it could learn to destroy the virus, which it does not do naturally," said Felipe Garcia, one of the scientists in the team at Barcelona University's Hospital Clinic.

The therapeutic vaccine, a shot that treats an existing disease rather than preventing it, was safe and led to a dramatic drop in the amount of HIV virus detected in some patients, said the study, published on Wednesday in Science Translation Medicine.