U.S. Scientists have created compounds that may be able to block the virus that causes AIDS and at the same time keep the body from sabotaging its own immune response, according to early-stage research unveiled Friday.

　　Mymetics Corp. said test tube studies show that one of its experimental compounds is seven times as potent as the most promising “fusion inhibitor” of HIV. The results were presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Diego.

　　So-called fusion inhibitors, designed to stop the virus from getting into cells in the first place, are the most advanced new HIV drug class in development. Currently approved AIDS medicines attack HIV only after it has entered a cell.

　　But the work is still very early-stage — the peptides have yet to be tested in animals — and permission for trials in humans will be sought.  (SD-Agencies)