"HIV appears to be vulnerable when it is first introduced into mucosal surfaces in the body,” explained Louis Picker, associate director of the OHSU's Vaccine Gene Therapy Institute. 

"However, once HIV spreads throughout the entire body, it replicates very rapidly and becomes difficult if not impossible to control. "

Their method involves programming a part of the body's immune system to look for HIV at the site of infection.

In order to determine whether this was possible, 12 rhesus macaque monkeys at the Oregon Natural Primate Research Centre were vaccinated using this method.

When they were later infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) - the primate equivalent of HIV, one-third were protected.

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