HIV: A vaccine against AIDS is possible

An AIDS Vaccine Everyone's dreaming, and today, research published by researchers at Harvard University is waking up Their experimental vaccine has been shown to protect apes and elicit an immune response in humans

According to the World Health Organization, some 37 million people today live in the world With HIV or AIDS, no less than 1.8 million new cases are reported every year, and since the beginning of the 1980s, the disease has reportedly killed around 35 million people, and despite the increasing effectiveness of treatment , there is still no vaccine against this scourge.

Worse, in some 35 years of epidemic, only an experimental vaccine has shown a certain efficiency. from 2003, the immune response was prepared by the administration of a recombinant CanaryPox vector and then doped by the injection of the gp120 envelope protein. In response, a 31% decline in the infection rate was observed. An interesting result however considered insufficient

But today, researchers from Harvard (United States) report new encouraging developments. The experimental vaccine they developed provoked an immune response in humans and protected the monkey from infection. "These results are crucial. However, they must be considered with the utmost care. An immune response does not necessarily mean that this vaccine is able to protect against HIV infection, "warns Professor Dan Barouch.

Large-scale trials already started

What causes the more enthusiasm is that this vaccine is presented as a mosaic vaccine. A vaccine that combines different types of HIV and can 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.

"A robust immune response"

The study reports the results of a test conducted on 393 healthy, HIV-negative adults aged 18 to 50 in East Africa, South Africa, Thailand and the United States. 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 "life-size" test 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. However, the results are not expected before 2021 or 2022. (futura-sciences)