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Scientists may have moved closer to vaccination against the HIV virus
This is a "mosaic" vaccine designed to immunize against several types of HIV. In the material, the components of various HIV viruses have been combined to elicit immune responses to a broad spectrum of virus strains. The development of immunization is so difficult because the types of HIV are genetically very different and can also mutate.
For their clinical study, published in the journal The Lancet, researchers vaccinated nearly 400 healthy adult volunteers in East Africa, South Africa, Thailand, and the United States. In total, each received four vaccinations for 48 weeks. In the blood of volunteers could then be detected anti-HIV antibodies. Except mild headaches and muscle aches, there was virtually no side effect. In parallel, the researchers tested the vaccine on rhesus monkeys. Two-thirds of the monkeys remained healthy, even after being infected with HIV six times.
The authors of the study, however, warn against too much optimism. If the protection proven in monkeys also works in humans is not yet clear. In a second follow-up study, the vaccine will be tested in southern Africa on 2,600 women exposed to HIV
Nearly 37 million people worldwide have HIV or Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), with about 1.8 million new infections each year, A vaccine against the virus has been sought since the discovery of the virus in the early 1980s. Up to now, only four human vaccines have reached the final phase of the study . However, its effectiveness was so low that no vaccines have been developed further for the market.
This post was posted on 08.07.2018 in the program Deutschlandfunk.
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