The HIV vaccine is promising in a human trial

An HIV vaccine that has the potential to protect people of the world from the virus has given rise to 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, a study found in the Lancet.

He also protected some monkeys from a virus similar to HIV.

More tests are now needed to determine whether the immune response produced can prevent HIV infection in people.

About 37 million people worldwide are living with HIV or AIDS, and an estimated 1.8 million new cases each year.

Despite advances in HIV treatment, treatment and elusive vaccine.

The drug Prep, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, is effective at preventing HIV infection, but, unlike a vaccine, it must be taken regularly, even daily, to prevent the virus from becoming infected. ;install.

Inventing a vaccine has proven to be a huge challenge for scientists, in part because there are so many strains of the virus, but also because HIV is able to mutate to escape the attacks of the virus. our immune system.

were limited to specific strains of the virus found in some parts of the world.

But for this "mosaic" vaccine, scientists have developed a treatment consisting of different fragments of HIV virus.

could offer much better protection against the almost unlimited number of HIV strains found in the world.

In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, scientists tested various combinations of the mosaic vaccine in people aged 18 to 50 who did not have the HIV and were in good health. 19659005] Participants from the United States, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa and Thailand received four vaccines for 48 weeks

All vaccine combinations produced an immune response anti-HIV and proved to be safe.

Scientists also conducted a parallel study where they gave the rhesus monkey vaccine to protect them against simian-human immunodeficiency virus – a virus similar to HIV that infects monkeys.

The mosaic vaccine combination that has shown the most promise in humans has been found to protect 67% of the 72 monkeys from the disease.

"These results represent a significant milestone," said Dan Barouch, professor of medicine at Harvard. Faculty of Medicine and Lead Author of the Study

However, Professor Barouch also cautioned that the results should be interpreted with caution.

Although the vaccine triggers a response in the immune system of people who took it, it is unclear whether this would be enough to fight the virus and prevent infection.

"The challenges in the development of an HIV vaccine are unprecedented, and the ability to induce specific immune responses to HIV does not necessarily indicate that a vaccine will protect humans against HIV infection, "he added.

"Promising Signs"

Nevertheless, the promising results of the study mean that the researchers will test the treatment of 2,600 women in southern Africa who are at risk of contracting the disease – l " one of the five vaccines to reach stage of so-called efficacy trials.

Only one vaccine has already shown evidence of protection against HIV.

A vaccine tested in Thailand lowered the rate of human infection by 31%, but the effect was considered too low to bring it to a common use.

Dr. Michael Brady, medical director of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said it was early for the vaccine but that the signs were "promising".

"However, it is important to be cautious and be clear that there is a lot of"

Dr. Brady added that in the meantime there already existed effective tools to prevent the spread of the disease, such as contraception and treatment for HIV-positive people that prevented them from spreading, spreading the virus

Follow Alex on Twitter .