A live-virus “suicide” vaccine for human immunodeficiency virus

ABSTRACT

A vaccine that uses a live, attenuated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may offer the best hope of a vaccine against acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). A recent improvement should increase the safety of the live-virus approach: a "suicide gene" inserted into the viral RNA, which causes infected cells to die when treated with ganciclovir. We envision using this strategy not only to prevent AIDS, but also to treat it.