A Swedish research team has succeeded in producing artificial antibodies that stimulate the immune defense system in HIV and AIDS patients, a Swedish professor said Monday.

Professor Britta Wahren said the substance had proved effective on Swedish patients in the fight against HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), which causes the nearly always fatal disease AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome).The substance, so-called monoclonal antibodies, has been successfully tried on seven Swedish HIV patients, who were injected with the drug every two weeks in a three month period earlier this year.

Wahren said the substance had been sold to U.S. pharmaceutical firm Baxter Travenol Laboratories Inc., which would market it as the first method of strengthening HIV patients' immune system.

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She said the only side effects of the new anti-bodies were fever and shivers when injected, the same reaction as when the body fights a virus.

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