|
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report. A team of scientists in the United States has created a new type of mouse that has an immune system similar to that of humans. The scientists hope their research with these mice will speed up development of a vaccine to prevent human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. Scientists from the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard are carrying out the new research. Earlier research has shown that certain individuals with HIV have immune systems that do better at controlling the AIDS virus. These individuals are commonly known as “elite controllers.” They often live longer with the virus and have fewer problems early on. Todd Allen is one of the lead writers of the new study, which was published in Science Translational Medicine. TODD ALLEN: “Some people are able to control HIV very well, to very low copies. And what we know is that they express a certain type of host genetics that dictate that they target very critical regions of the virus.” By using the new experimental mice, the researchers hope to learn what it is about the immune systems of these “elite controllers” that causes them to deal with the HIV virus better than others. The “humanized” mice were created using stem cells and tissues from human donors. Some of this tissue was taken from liver and thymus tissue. The thymus is a large gland at the bottom of the throat. It trains T-lymphocytes, or T-cells to attack unwelcome microbes, thereby protecting the body from infection. | 
