AIDS: Are the wilderness years over for vaccine research?
October 21, 2009 by Richard InghamScientists looking for a vaccine against the AIDS virus can be forgiven for wondering at times whether they made the right career decision.
For more than a quarter-century, their quest has been littered with setbacks while colleagues who work on HIV treatment have been showered with success.
Promising avenues have led to dead ends and long, costly trials of prototypes have ended in failure, saddling the vaccine field with a reputation for lucklessness.
But two pieces of good news have suddenly boosted morale.
Even though a vaccine still lies over the horizon, at least a path has now emerged for getting there, say experts interviewed at the AIDS Vaccine 2009 conference, ending in Paris on Thursday.
On September 3, researchers in the United States discovered two potent antibodies -- the frontline troops in the immune system -- that expose what may prove to be a viral Achilles' heel.
On September 24, US and Thai researchers unveiled the results of the biggest vaccine trial ever.
Tested among more than 16,000 Thais, shots of ALVAC and AIDSVAX vaccines offered 31.2-percent protection against the risk of infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
This is far too weak to make it a vaccine for public use.
And nagging questions arise: why does the vaccine's effect seem to wane over time? Why does it seem to be less effective among people who are most at risk from HIV infection? And could it work in Africa, epicentre of a pandemic that has claimed 25 million lives and left some 33 million others infected?
Even so, the trial is scientific gold.
It proved at last that the immune system can be taught to recognise and devise a shield, even partially, against a notorious shape-shifting foe.
"We now have a proof of concept. It's the first time we've been able to show that," said Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
"ALVAC/AIDSVAX is not in itself the answer. It's a start on the road to a vaccine, whereas, before, we didn't even know where the road was."
"The Thai tests have provided a vital pick-me-up," agreed Jean-Francois Delfraissy, director of France's National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS).
Seth Berkley, head of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), said the research pipeline, which previously wheezed out tiny drips, was now becoming a small but steady flow.
"There's a lot of excitement," he said. "You've got the first data about protection. You've also got extremely potent antibodies that are showing new targets and there's a lot more of that coming, that field's exploding right now."
Berkley also noted that the two vaccines in the Thai trial were designed some 15 years ago. Smarter vaccines have since emerged, using different viral parts to prime the immune system and novel methods to deliver them.
Berkley pointed at progress -- among lab monkeys, not humans -- on so-called cell-mediated vaccines, in which immune cells are primed to clear out the AIDS virus after infection.
"What is happening now has sort of revitalised optimism," said Muhammad Bakari of the Muhimbili University College of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania.
"If you borrow the example from antiretrovirals, people thought it would take many, many years to get these drugs but the speed was much, much faster than what was thought initially. So I think we should be optimistic."
Bakari's team reported very encouraging results from an early trial, gathering 60 Tanzanian policeman, who were given either a Swedish candidate vaccine called DNA/MVA, or a placebo.
All those who were given the primer and booster showed a very strong immune response, "as high as any" in previous vaccine trials, he said.
At this early stage, the vaccine is tested for safety, not for efficacy, and delivery and dosage may have to be modified, but the results should warrant arguing for a wider trial, he said.
French scientist Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, who co-won the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine, cautioned that a vaccine breakthrough still depended on answering fundamental questions about HIV and the pathways of infection.
With vaccines, "you are only looking for a single piece of the jigsaw puzzle. A single piece never gives you the whole picture. It's all the pieces of the puzzle put together that give the answer."
(c) 2009 AFP
-
AIDS vaccine trial exceeds expectations
Sep 23, 2005 |
not rated yet |
0
-
AIDS: Vaccine shows positive results in small trial - researchers
Oct 19, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
A world first: Vaccine helps prevent HIV infection
Sep 24, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Puzzling results from HIV vaccine trial
Dec 03, 2007 |
not rated yet |
0
-
AIDS experts go back to basics
Mar 27, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (31) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras
Apr 15, 2011
- More from Physics Forums - Independent Research
More news stories
Study finds that anti-diabetic medication can prevent the long-term effects of maternal obesity
In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that show that short therapy with the anti-diabetic medication ...
22 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
1
FDA-approved drug rapidly clears amyloid from the brain, reverses Alzheimer's symptoms in mice
Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have made a dramatic breakthrough in their efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. The researchers' findings, published in the journal Science, show t ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Feb 09, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (53) |
21
|
Teen school drop-outs three times as likely to be on benefits in later life
Teen school drop-outs are almost three times as likely to be on benefits in later life as their peers who complete their schooling, indicates research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Feb 06, 2012 |
not rated yet |
11
Green tea found to reduce disability in the elderly
(Medical Xpress) -- A lot of research has been done over the past several years looking into the health benefits of green tea. As a result, scientists have found that regular consumption of the beverage leads ...
Amateur football players not always keen on returning to play after ACL injuries
Despite the known success rates of reconstructive Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) surgery, the number of high school and collegiate football players returning to play may not be as high as anticipated, say researchers presenting ...
22 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon
(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...
Latin America mining boom clashes with conservation
Latin America is experiencing a mining boom as prices rise fuelled by a hike in global demand, but the region is also being hit by a wave of violent protests, strikes and rallies by environmentalists.
Love a click away in Indonesia's Twitter Republic
He was a geeky kid from Yogyakarta, she a glamorous city girl in Jakarta. In a country with one of the world's most vibrant social networking scenes they fell in love on Twitter.
Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...
GPS court ruling leaves US phone tracking unclear
A US Supreme Court decision requiring a warrant to place a GPS device on the car of a criminal suspect leaves unresolved the bigger issue of police tracking using mobile phones, legal experts say.
Europeans protest controversial Internet pact
Tens of thousands of people marched in protests in more than a dozen European cities Saturday against a controversial anti-online piracy pact that critics say could curtail Internet freedom.