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A vaccine against AIDS. Everyone dreams of it. And today, essays published by researchers at Harvard University awaken hope. Their experimental vaccine has been shown to protect monkeys and has elicited an immune response in humans.
According to the World Health Organization some 37 million people today live in the world with the Characteristics of HIV
HIV is a virus of the family Retroviridae and the genus Lentivirus. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2 that have only partial sequence homologies. HIV-2 … "data-image =" https://www.cdn.v5.futura-sciences.com/buildsv6/images/midioriginal/9/5/0/950823eb49_50034194_vih-dr.jpg "data-url = "/ sante / definitions / medecine-vih-284 /" data-more = "Read more"> HIV or the AIDS Agent
The AIDS Agent is a Lentivirus, HIV (HIV-1 and HIV-2) for human immunodeficiency virus, it infects the cells of the immune system, T4 lymphocytes that possess … "data-image =" https: //fr.cdn.v5.futura- sciences.com/buildsv6/images/midioriginal/1/7/a/17a2164097_122278_sida-ruban-red.jpg "data-url =" / health / definitions / medical-aids-256 / "data-more =" Read More " > AIDS . No less than 1.8 million new cases are reported each year. Since the early 1980s, the disease would have killed not far from 35 million individuals. And despite the increasing effectiveness of treatments, there is still no vaccine against this scourge.
Worse, in some 35 years of epidemic only an experimental vaccine has demonstrated some efficiency. In the RV144 trial in Thailand starting in 2003, the immune response was prepared by the administration of a recombinant CanaryPox vector and then doped by the injection of the Roles of Proteins
Proteins can perform functions very diverse within the cell or organism.
They may have:
a structural role (such as actin or tubulin that … "data-image =" https://fr.cdn.v5.futura-sciences.com/buildsv6/images /midioriginal/4/6/e/46e94f9da7_50034188_actine-thomas-splettstoesser-cc.jpg "data-url =" / health / definitions / biology-protein-237 / "data-more =" Read more "> protein In response, a 31% drop in infection rate was observed, but an interesting result was considered insufficient.
But today, Harvard researchers (USA) report encouraging new developments.The experimental vaccine they developed has caused an immune response in humans and protected the monkey from infection. "These However, an immune response does not necessarily mean that the vaccine is safe. to protect us from HIV infection " warns Professor Dan Barouch.
Large-scale trials already started
What makes the enthusiasm all the more so is that this vaccine is presented as a mosaic vaccine. A vaccine combining different types of HIV and likely to trigger responses against a wide variety of strains . The results show besides 67% of effectiveness in the monkey. Again, the reaction was initiated by intramuscular injection of Ad26.Mos.HIV. Then the response was stimulated, a little later, by the administration of two additional vaccines among which, a combination of Ad26.Mos.HIV plus gp140.
An immune response " robust
In humans, the study reports the results of a test of 393 healthy, seronegative adults aged 18-50 in East Africa, South Africa, Thailand and in the USA. Between February and October 2015, they received four injections of one of the vaccine combinations or a placebo. And according to Professor Barouch, the immune response provoked was "robust" . Another positive point: the safety of the vaccine could be demonstrated.
However, it remains to conduct a test "life size" to determine the real effectiveness of this vaccine. This test is already on track and will cover some 2,600 women judged to be at risk in southern Africa. The results, however, are not expected before 2021 or 2022.
What to remember
- Some 35 years after the first case diagnosed, the HIV epidemic continues to cause deaths.
- Vaccine candidates the effectiveness of which has been tested on humans is very low.
- A team from Harvard University has achieved encouraging results and is now moving to the next phase of its clinical trials.
- If the preliminary results are confirmed, this vaccine could protect us against a wide variety of strains of HIV.
HIV: an experimental vaccine against AIDS shows encouraging signs
1 and ] December 2017 was World AIDS Day. This is an opportunity to take stock of the latest medical advances on the search for a vaccine. In July 2017, as reported, encouraging results were published by the Janssen laboratory. In a yet preliminary study, 100% of participants developed an immune response with a prototype vaccine. A note of optimism while the development of an effective vaccine against HIV has struggled for years.
AFP article published on July 26, 2017 [19659003] Tested at 393 volunteers in five countries (South Africa, Uganda, United States, Rwanda and Thailand), a prototype HIV vaccine developed by the Janssen laboratory (Johnson and Johnson group) resulted in an immune response ( Structure of an Antibody
An antibody is a protein complex, and each body with an immune system encodes billions of different antibodies, they all have the same overall characteristics … "data-image =" https://www.cdn.v5.futura-sciences.com/buildsv6/images/midioriginal/a/5/4/a543c37e56_50034150_antibody-yohan-gfld.jpg "data-url =" / health / definitions / medecine-antibodies-93 / "data-more =" Read more "> antibody ) in 100% of participants, according to the study presented on July 24, 2017 at the international conference of research on AIDS in Paris.
"These promising data, combined with the advances of other researchers in this field, allow to be optimistic again about the possibility of developing an HIV vaccine " Dr. Dan Barouch, a member of the research team, told a press conference.
experts, a vaccine would remain the best way to end an epidemic is an increase in an endemic disease or the appearance of a large number of patients where the disease was … " data-url = "/ health / definitions / life-epidemic-3837 /" data-more = "Read more"> epidemic that has infected 76 million people and caused 35 million deaths since its inception in the early 1980s. Despite the means of prevention, it is based on the in the face of negative disturbances or the reduction of their … "data-image =" https://www.cdn.v5.futura-sciences.com/buildsv6/images/midioriginal/0/7/0/070bdc60f3_50035320_amenagement-prevention -crue-clive-perrin-geograph-cc-2.jpg "data-url =" / planet / definitions / sustainable-development-prevention-6509 / "data-more =" Read more "> prevention ] available, 1.8 million new infections occurred in 2016, according to UNAIDS. And "to date, only four vaccine projects have reached the stage of testing their clinical effectiveness" recalled Barouch, the others were abandoned in the preliminary phase because of their lack of effectiveness.
The next phase of HIV vaccine testing would begin at the end of 2017
This new experimental vaccine, "double-trigger" is first of all to awaken the innate response or not specific
The answer no … "data-image =" https://www.cdn.v5.futura-sciences.com/buildsv6/images/midioriginal/e/3/4/e349838f03_50084101_globule-blanc.jpg " data-url = "/ health / definitions / medicine-immune-system-2722 /" data-more = "Read more"> immune system with a commonplace virus of common cold, before doping it with a protein on the HIV envelope, triggering a more vigorous response from the body.
In one phase previous on monkeys whose results were published two years ago, this strategy had prevented infection in two thirds of the origin of primates
The debate remains … " data-image = "https://www.cdn.v5.futura-sciences.com/buildsv6/images/midioriginal/4/0/e/40f01b0d93_52778_macaque-japonais-udon-fotopedia-cc-nc-20.jpg" data -url = "/ planet / definitions / zoology-primate-2141 /" data-more = "Read more"> primates recalled Dan Barouch, virologist and professor at the university's faculty of medicine from Harvard. "Of course, we do not know yet if this vaccine will protect humans. But these data justify a larger scale efficacy study " he estimated.
After a further evaluation, the next phase of the tests, on high-risk participants contamination by HIV could begin "end of 2017 or early 2018" in countries of southern Africa, said in a statement the Janssen laboratory. [19659003] To develop a vaccine will be "very difficult" but a success "would upset the landscape" explained to AFP Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of the Causes of. .. "data-image =" https://www.cdn.v5.futura-sciences.com/buildsv6/images/midioriginal/9/1/2/9122e6917c_88466_shutterstock-piotr-marcinski.jpg "data-url =" / health / definitions / medicine-allergy-2956 / "data-more =" Read more "> allergies and infectious diseases (NIAID is re Responsible for North American Biomedical Research in the Field of Infectious Diseases and Allergic Diseases. "data-url =" / health / definitions / medecine-niaid-4614 / "data-more =" Read the definition "> NIAID ), a US public research organization. "Even if we obtain an efficiency of 50 to 60%, […] it would have a major impact on the pandemic" he added.
Another experimental vaccine, called HVTN 702, is currently undergoing a large-scale clinical trial in South Africa
A Norwegian AIDS vaccine shows its efficacy
AFP article published on 24 December 2015
The Norwegian biotechnology company Bionor, which is developing a vaccine against HIV, has announced encouraging first results of a treatment that dislodges the virus from "reservoirs" in which he hides in dormant form.
"It is a major success to find a healing functional to HIV" explained to AFP the door of Bionor, Jørgen Fischer Ravn. Currently, the antiretroviral treatments allow to keep control of the virus in patients seropositive but without ridding them permanently. The virus responsible for AIDS remains lodged in the body of people treated in dormant form, but reappears as soon as treatments are stopped. This reservoir, which is difficult to reach, is one of the greatest obstacles to the development of treatment to ensure a certain cure.
Bionor's experiment at the University of Aarhus, Denmark , out of 20 seropositive patients was able to dislodge the dormant virus from the reservoir using romidepsin, a anticancer drug and then partially eliminate it. Each patient had been previously vaccinated with Vacc-4x, which Bionor develops. "After the activation of the virus, which normally should lead to the detection of the virus in the blood, Vacc-4x has guaranteed the elimination of cells producing the virus, maintaining an undetectable or very low level of virus in the blood. of 15 of the 17 patients who participated in the program until the end of the experiment " Jørgen Fischer Ravn
" Wake up "the sleeping virus, dislodge it and eliminate it (" kick and kill ") is a promising strategy for ridding patients of HIV but the tests conducted by Bionor have not been validated or published by a scientific journal. With more than 34 million deaths to date, HIV continues to be a major public health problem, according to Health: What is WHO?
As it is stated in its constitution, the WHO aims to bring all peoples to the highest level of health … "data-image =" https://fr.cdn.v5.futura-sciences.com/ buildsv6 / images / midioriginal / c / 0/3 / c0318e9153_101519_oms-logo.jpg "data-url =" / health / definitions / medecine-oms-4321 / "data-more =" Read more "> WHO At the end of 2014, there were around 36.9 million people in the world living with the virus
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