The results of the clinical trial, published Thursday in the journal Science on World AIDS Day, establish evidence that vaccines can induce effective immune responses against HIV infection for which there is no cure and which can cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, known as AIDS.
The vaccine, called eOD-GT8 60mer, had a “favorable safety profile” and induced neutralizing antibodies in 97 percent of all but one of 36 recipients, according to researchers at Scripps Research, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, National Institutes of Health and others. institutions in the United States and Sweden.
Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system to help fight infection, and general neutralizing antibodies are known to neutralize many genetic variants of HIV.
“Learning how to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies against pathogens with high antigenic diversity, such as HIV, influenza, hepatitis C virus or the betacoronavirus family, represents a major challenge for rational vaccine design,” they wrote the researchers. “Designing germ-targeted vaccines offers a potential strategy for addressing this challenge.”
The eOD-GT8 60mer vaccine candidate is a germline targeted vaccine, meaning it has been designed to induce the production of broadly neutralizing antibodies by targeting and stimulating the right cells that can produce antibodies.
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative announced the initiation of this Phase 1 clinical trial in 2018 to evaluate the safety of eOD-GT8 60mer and the immune responses it is capable of inducing.
The study included a total of 48 healthy adults, ages 18 to 50, who were tested at George Washington University in Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.
Of the participants, 18 received a 20-microgram dose of vaccine and, eight weeks later, a dose of the same amount with adjuvant; 18 received a dose of 100 micrograms of vaccine and, eight weeks later, a dose of the same amount of adjuvant vaccine; and 12 received two doses of saline placebo, eight weeks apart. The adjuvant is called AS01B, developed by the pharmaceutical company GSK. The vaccines and placebo were administered into the arm muscle.
An HIV vaccine will likely need to elicit these broadly neutralizing antibodies, or bnAbs, “which are capable of recognizing various strains of HIV globally and may prevent HIV infection.” However, extraction of bnAbs by vaccination has proven impossible to date. A key challenge is that bnAbs rarely develop, even during infection, it transmits Cnn.
Last year, more than 38 million people were diagnosed with HIV or AIDS worldwide. According to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, more than 20 clinical trials of HIV vaccines are underway worldwide.
Many people in the United States have turned to daily HIV prevention pills or frequent injections known as PrEP to reduce their risk of infection.
For the most important news of the day, broadcast in real time and presented equidistantly, please LIKE it our Facebook page!
It follows Mediafax on Instagram to see spectacular images and stories from around the world!
The content of the www.mediafax.ro website is intended solely for your information and personal use. is prohibited republication of the content of this site without the consent of MEDIAFAX. To obtain this agreement, please contact us at [email protected].
