Promising test results of new HIV vaccine

New HIV vaccine has achieved promising results in human trials. It elicited an immune system response and was well tolerated by the body. In parallel tests on monkeys, it reduced infection rates by 67 percent.

Since the HIV epidemic broke out, only four vaccines have reached the testing phaseów on humans. The best of them reduced the number of infections by 31 percent., But that wasn’t enough to bring the vaccine to market. The vaccine currently being tested is the fifth thatóra has reached this stage.

According to UN data, worldwide nearly 37 millionóin the osób are HIV-positive, with about 1.8 million new cases reported each yearów. However, despite the progressóin medicine, zaróboth a cure and a vaccine for the virus have so far remained unattainable.

Developing an effective vaccine has proven to be a huge challenge for scientistsów. Partly because there are multiple strainsóin the HIV virus. On top of that, the virus mutates very quickly, making it much more difficult to develop an effective vaccine.

Harvard Medical School researchers creating a new vaccine took all this into account and created seven variantsóin vaccines. Each contains fragments of multiple róof the virusóin HIV and combines them to induce an immune response against a wide range of strainsów HIV. Scientists hope it will offer much better protection than vaccines tested previously.

– Test resultsów constitute an important step forwardód,” said Dan Barouch, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and head of theówny author of the study, któThe results of this study have been published on „The Lancet”. At the same time, the researcher pointed out that the results should be interpreted with caution.

Scientists tested the new vaccine on 393 healthy people at low risk of infection between the ages of 18 and 50. The tests lasted from February to October 2015. Participants in the study at clinics in Africa (Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa), Thailand and the US and received four vaccinations over 48 weeks. Some of the subjects received a placebo.

Results, whichóre published last week, showed that all vaccine variants generated an immune response against HIV and were well tolerated by the body’s. Although there have been some harmless side effects, such as bóle and dizziness, fatigue, diarrhea or bóle pleców.

Although the vaccine triggered an immune system reaction in waspsób, whichóre they received it, it is unclear whether it would be sufficient to fight the virus and prevent infection.

Równo parallel to the testów human studies have been conducted on monkeys – resus. 72 monkeys were inoculated with the same vaccine variants and exposed to the monkey immunodeficiency virus, który is very similar to HIV. The best variant of the vaccine protected 2/3 of vaccinated monkeys from infection.

Of course, there are no guarantees that a similar result will be achieved in humans. However, there are reasons for optimism. Researchers will now test the most effective variant of the vaccine in the monkey study on women in South Africa, in whom theórych there is a high risk of disease. Tests on 2,600. women will begin this fall.