WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AIDS researchers reported on Monday they had designed a vaccine that they believe may do what no other vaccine has done before -- protect people from infection with the virus.



The team, led by Timothy Fouts, have broken the gp120 off the rest of the virus as it attaches to CD4. They combined the two joined pieces, CD4 and gp120, to make the vaccine.



"The belly of the beast may be exposed at this point in time," Gallo said.



Tests in macaque monkeys showed they produced antibodies when inoculated with the vaccine. In laboratory dishes, these monkey antibodies neutralized most of the main strains, or clades, of HIV, including HIV-A, B, C, D and E.



The subtypes differ from one another in about 30 percent of their genetic sequence. Subtype B is found mostly in Europe, the Americas and Japan while A, C, D and E are spreading in Africa and Asia, so a vaccine designed in the United States may not work to protect Africans, who are the hardest hit by AIDS.