The Reina Sofía hospital is participating in a global project to develop a vaccine to help prevent HIV infection (human immunodeficiency virus), an infection that can lead to some patients developing AIDS.
The study, which is called Mosaic, is in the final phase of volunteer recruitment to complete a quota of 250 patients in Spain, of the nearly 4,000 contemplated internationally. In Córdoba, the possibility of admitting some more candidates is still open. For this, interested persons from all over Andalusia can request to participate in the research at the address [email protected].
The doctor Antonio Riveror, head of the Infectious Diseases section of the Reina Sofía hospital and director of the study in Córdoba, explains that «the vaccine is called Mosaic, because it has small parts of the virus that can produce a response against HIV in the form of antibodies and immune capacity. Our goal is to assess whether this response is sufficient to prevent the transmission of this virus. ‘
Rivero explains that at the Reina Sofía more than 40 patients are participating in the clinical trial and have received some dose of study medication. The period of follow-up of the participants in the clinical study will be two and a half years from when the first dose is administered and the evaluation is finished.
“During the follow-up, it will be verified whether the vaccine is effective in preventing HIV infection, so for now it is necessary to be Cautious About Vaccine Efficiency. We are waiting for some time to pass to have the first results worldwide and to see what the role of the vaccine is in preventing HIV, “explains Antonio Rivero, who is also director of the Imibic’s Clinical Virology and Emerging Zoonoses group and president of the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (Seimc). This expert emphasizes that the Mosaico vaccine, “in which we have great confidence, is the only one on a large scale that is being developed in the world. The study is in phase 3, which means that when this stage is finished, if it is decided that the vaccine is effective in preventing HIV, vaccination with it could begin. The Reina Sofía is the the only Andalusian hospital working on this study clinic, in which the Vall d’Hebron and Germans Trias i Pujol hospitals (Barcelona) are also present; the San Carlos hospital complex and the Fundación Jiménez Díaz hospital (Madrid) plus the General Hospital of Valencia. In addition, centers from the United States and Latin America and European hospitals participate.
HIV infections decline, but still exist
Despite the fact that in recent years HIV infections and AIDS cases have decreased compared to the end of the last century, thanks to existing treatments, the Andalusian Health Council warns of a certain rrelaxation in the population at risk, which can be seen in the spike in sexually transmitted infections in general, especially in young men under 30 years old. In Andalusia, 57% of the cases of HIV infections affect men who have sex with men; 25% are for heterosexual relationships, and 1.5% refer to intravenous drug users. With regard to HIV infections, in 2013 there were 31 cases in Córdoba; in 2014 there were 28; in 2015 and 2016 there were 37; In 2017 and 2018, there were 38, and in 2019 there were 28. Of the total infections, hardly any cases of AIDS are diagnosed, which tend to be less than 5 per year in Córdoba, although some cases remain undetected.
Who will be the beneficiaries?
The Mosaico clinical study includes testing the vaccine in patients recruited by hospitals and research centers in Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Spain and the United States. Candidates, who must be between 18 and 60 years old and have no health complications, are cisgender men (person whose gender identity is aligned with the sex they were assigned at birth, independent of their sexual preferences) and transgender people who have sex with cisgender men and / or transgender people, making them more at risk of infection.
Antonio Rivero points out that if this treatment can demonstrate that the study’s vaccine scheme works, it will be a very important step on the way to finding a safe and effective vaccine for HIV prevention.
Rivero clarifies that a study like the one that is being carried out seeks to demonstrate that this vaccine teaches the body’s immune system to prevent HIV infection. To develop this vaccine or any other, as has happened in the recent case of the sera that are being administered against COVID around the world, researchers need to evaluate it in people.
A vaccine study like Mosaico also looks at whether the study vaccines are safe (do not cause health problems) and whether people’s immune systems respond to them. Therefore, many vaccine studies have to be carried out to produce one that is safe and effective, adds this specialist.
According to the documentation on this study, the vaccines evaluated in this study cannot cause HIV infection or AIDS, since they are not made from live HIV, dead HIV, parts obtained from HIV, or human cells infected with HIV. HIV but from synthetic copies (made in the laboratory) of parts of HIV and therefore cannot cause HIV infection or AIDS.
The maker of the vaccines being tested, thanks to the collaboration of hospitals around the world, is Janssen Vaccines & Prevention BV, which is part of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies.
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