Scientists are cautiously optimistic about the HIV vaccine candidate

(CNN) – There may be a glimmer of hope in the fight to protect people from HIV-1, the most common type of virus and the one that causes the most diseases in the world.

According to a new study published Friday in the journal The Lancet

this means that it is safe enough to proceed to the next phase of testing, which involves a greater number of humans. It is one of five experimental concepts of HIV-1 vaccines that have reached the age of 35 years of the HIV pandemic.

With 1.8 million new cases of human immunodeficiency virus each year, according to United Nations estimates. People living with HIV around the world, finding a vaccine has been urgent – and extremely difficult.

Scientists use these initial phases of clinical trials to determine the best dose to use and to see if a vaccine is safe.

The new vaccine was tested in 393 healthy people considered at low risk of infection and 72 rhesus monkeys. Participants in the human trials came from 12 clinics in South Africa, East Africa, Thailand and the United States.

In addition to being well tolerated by all subjects tested and inducing an immune response against HIV in humans,% protection against infection with the virus of the simian-human immunodeficiency in rhesus monkeys. It is not known if this would provide protection for humans.

As this phase of the test was considered a success, the vaccine can be tested in a larger population of patients at higher risk of infection. This trial began in the fall and is ongoing in 2,600 women in sub-Saharan Africa

The researchers warn that the results of the early test do not mean a viable vaccine. The ability to induce specific immune responses to HIV does not necessarily mean that the vaccine will protect humans against HIV infection.

"I would say that we are satisfied with these data so far, but we need to interpret the data with caution." study co-authored Dr. Dan H. Barouch, a senior researcher on the study, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research. "We must recognize that the development of an HIV vaccine is an unprecedented challenge, and we will not know for sure whether this vaccine will protect humans."

Only four vaccine concepts were tested in humans, and only one proof of protection in an efficacy trial, but the effect was deemed too weak to make it usable.

The new vaccine has been shown to be protective in monkeys, and although antibodies against HIV have been generated in humans, it is unclear whether "this is a very interesting study but the search for an HIV vaccine is very difficult, "said Dr. Carlos del Rio, who did not participate in the study, but did research similar to that of the HIV vaccine. co-principal investigator of the Emory-CDC HIV Clinical Trials Unit. "Despite all the progress we've made with HIV, we need a vaccine, it's essential, and this new vaccine, even though there's still a long way to go, it's good to see solid evidence to move to the next phase.

His unit is one of 37 clinical trial units responsible for implementing the scientific agenda of the National Institutes of Health's International HIV / AIDS Clinical Research Network.

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