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URL: http://www.avianflutalk.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=37577 Printed Date: April 24 2024 at 3:35pm
Topic: HIV VACCINE SHOWS PROMISE IN HUMAN TRIALSPosted By: Technophobe
Subject: HIV VACCINE SHOWS PROMISE IN HUMAN TRIALS
Date Posted: July 07 2018 at 5:42pm
HIV VACCINE SHOWS PROMISE IN HUMAN TRIALS
7 July 2018
An HIV vaccine that has the potential to protect people around the world from the virus has shown promising results.
The
treatment, which aims to provide immunity against various strains of
the virus, produced an anti-HIV immune system response in tests on 393
people, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2818%2931364-3/fulltext" rel="nofollow - a study in the Lancet found .
It also protected some monkeys from a virus that is similar to HIV.
More testing is now needed to determine if the immune response produced can prevent HIV infection in people.
About 37 million people worldwide live with HIV or Aids, and there are an estimated 1.8 million new cases every year.
But despite advances in treatment for HIV, both a cure and a vaccine for the virus have so far remained elusive.
The drug https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41637901" rel="nofollow - Prep, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, is effective at preventing HIV infection , but, unlike a vaccine, it needs to be taken regularly, even daily, to prevent the virus from taking hold.
Inventing
a vaccine has proved an immense challenge for scientists, in part
because there are so many strains of the virus, but also because HIV is
adept at mutating to elude attack from our immune systems.
Previous attempts at HIV vaccines have been limited to specific strains of the virus found in certain parts of the world.
But for this "mosaic" vaccine, scientists have developed a treatment made up of pieces of different HIV viruses.
The
hope is that it could offer much better protection against the almost
unlimited number of HIV strains found across the world.
In a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled
trial, scientists tested various combinations of the mosaic vaccine in
people aged 18 to 50 who did not have HIV and were healthy.
The
participants, from the US, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, and Thailand,
received four vaccinations over the course of 48 weeks.
All of the vaccine combinations produced an anti-HIV immune system response and were found to be safe.
Scientists
also carried out a parallel study where they gave rhesus monkeys the
vaccine to protect them from getting simian-human immunodeficiency virus
- a virus similar to HIV that infects monkeys.
The mosaic
vaccine combination that showed the most promise in humans was found to
protect 67% of the 72 monkeys from getting the disease.
"These
results represent an important milestone," said Dan Barouch, professor
of medicine at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study.
However, Prof Barouch also cautioned that the findings needed to be interpreted with caution.
Though
the vaccine triggered a response in the immune system of the people who
took it, it is not clear if this would be enough to fight off the virus
and prevent infection.
"The challenges in the development of an
HIV vaccine are unprecedented, and the ability to induce HIV-specific
immune responses does not necessarily indicate that a vaccine will
protect humans from HIV infection," he added.
'Promising signs'
Nevertheless,
the promising results of the study mean researchers will next test the
treatment on 2,600 women in southern Africa who are at risk of getting
the illness - one of only five vaccines to make it to this stage of
so-called efficacy trials.
Only one vaccine has ever shown evidence of protecting against HIV.
A
vaccine tested in Thailand lowered the rate of human infection by 31%,
but the effect was considered too low to advance it to common use.
Dr
Michael Brady, medical director at the Terrence Higgins Trust, said it
was early days for the vaccine but the signs were "promising".
"However,
it's important to be cautious and be clear that there's a lot of work
to do before an effective HIV vaccine is readily available."
Dr
Brady added that in the meantime there were already tools that were
effective for preventing the disease from spreading, such as
contraception and treatments for HIV-positive people that prevent them
from passing on the virus.