AIDS:
Can Immune Systems Be Trained to Fight HIV?
Michael Balter
MARNES-LA-COQUETTE, FRANCE--Last month, at the Cent Gardes international AIDS meeting near Paris, researchers described studies of patients who had been taken off anti-HIV drug therapy for short periods of time. A small numbers of those patients showed signs that their immune systems could keep the virus at bay, and the experiments are providing valuable new information about what kinds of immune responses are needed to control HIV. And other work is pointing to ways of boosting the immune system to mount a stronger attack against the virus and perhaps one day eliminate the need for daily drugs.