Cows offers clue that leads to an HIV vaccine.

Cows offers clue that leads to an HIV vaccine. "Cows have shown an 'insane' and 'mind-blowing' ability to tackle HIV which will help develop a vaccine, say US researchers," BBC News reports. The report is based on new research in cows that were immunized against HIV before having their immune response to HIV assessed. There's currently no vaccine for HIV because the virus mutates so easily. Scientists aim to develop a vaccine that is not only potent (produces a strong immune system response), but also causes the immune system to make "broadly neutralizing antibodies" (able to protect against many different strains of virus). The four cows in this study were immunized against HIV with a specially developed vaccine to test both strength and "breadth". Some cows developed a weak response with reasonable breadth (20% – or it helped protect against 1 in 5 strains tested in the lab) at 42 days. One cow in particular showed an impressive immune response to most of the lab strains of HIV ("96% breadth") 381 days after being vaccinated. This research, done in a small number of cows, may help scientists work out if immune proteins made in cows could potentially be used to protect humans against a range of HIV strains. more