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Researchers at the University of Oxford have started a clinical trial for a new HIV vaccine candidate.
The objective of the trial, known as HIV-Core 0052, is to assess the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the HIVconsvX vaccine.
The mosaic vaccine targets a wide range of HIV-1 variants, making it potentially applicable to strains of HIV in any geographic region.
Oxford has started vaccinations of the new HIV vaccine candidate in a Phase 1 clinical trial in the UK.
Thirteen healthy, HIV-negative adults aged 18 to 65 who are considered not to be at high risk of infection will initially receive one dose of the vaccine followed by another booster dose after four weeks.
Professor Tomas Hanke, professor of vaccine immunology at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford and principal investigator of the trial, said: “An effective HIV vaccine has been elusive for 40 years.
“This trial is the first in a series of evaluations of this new vaccine strategy in people who are HIV negative for prevention and in people living with HIV for cure. “
While most HIV vaccine candidates work by inducing antibodies generated by B cells, HIVconsvX induces T cells of the immune system, targeting them to highly conserved and therefore vulnerable regions of HIV – an Achilles heel common to most variants of HIV.
The trial is part of the European AIDS Vaccine Initiative (EAVI2020), an international collaborative research project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 health program for research and innovation.
The researchers hope to be able to report the results of the trial by April of next year.
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