AP 01/12 18:02 EST V0402 NEW YORK (AP) -- Scientists have found new evidence that a single protein of the AIDS virus may damage brain cells and lead to the impaired thinking and movement seen in some infected people. Strains of mice made to produce the protein in their brains showed brain abnormalities like those in infected humans, researchers said. The mice should be useful in assessing drugs to ward off such damage from HIV, the AIDS virus, the researchers suggested in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. The protein, called gp120, is shed from HIV-infected cells in people, researchers said. For the experiment, mice were given a gene to make them produce the protein without HIV infection. The work was done by scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., the University of California, San Diego, and the Boston University School of Medicine. In a Nature commentary, Dr. Stuart Lipton of Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School said several drugs have been claimed to reduce cell damage from gp120, and that tests in humans are in progress.