Worse than the cure? Covid-19 vaccine may increase risks of contracting HIV

In letter published in the magazine Lancet, Susan P. Buchbinder, M. Juliana McElrath, Carl Dieffenbach and Lawrence Corey, stated that, more than a decade ago, they used Ad5 to develop HIV-1 vaccines, one of the variants of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, AIDS.

During phase 2 of the clinical trials, evidence that Ad5 itself would have made some men more vulnerable to that strain of HIV.

Ad5 has been the vector used in at least four vaccines against the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19. One is on the verge of phase 3 of the studies, in Russia and Pakistan.

“We are concerned that the use of an Ad5 vector for immunization against SARS-CoV-2 may likewise increase the risk of HIV-1 contagion among men who receive it, ”say the letter’s authors.

Researchers therefore call for caution and for people to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 to be alerted to the risks they are taking.

“The delivery of an effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine could be given to populations at risk of contracting HIV, which could potentially increase the risk of HIV-1 infection,” they wrote.

“This important safeguard should be assessed in depth before any developments in the SARS-CoV-2 Ad5 vaccines and informed consent documents for these potential risks should include considerable literature on HIV-1 contagion through Ad5 vectors, ”the researchers recommend.

Ad5 is the abbreviation for the harmless variant of recombinant adenovirus type 5 – which may, after all, be more dangerous for some people than anticipated.

The link between Ad5 and the possible worsening of the possibility of HIV transmission has not yet been realized. The Merck vaccine that used it to prevent AIDS has been suspended.

“The way in which Merck’s Ad5 vaccine increased the risk of HIV transmission in [testes clínicos] STEP and Phambili remain cloudy ”, wrote John Cohen, in the magazine Sciencein relation to the notice.

“The editorial of Lancet points out several possibilities, including decreased immunity to HIV, increased replication of the AIDS virus or the creation of more cells vulnerable to the virus, ”says Cohen, which would allow HIV to spread in the body much more quickly.

Attentive

Buchbinder is a professor at the University of San Francisco, California and heads the HIV Preventive Research area at the Department of Public Health in the same city.

Both she and her colleagues were involved in testing for the HIV vaccine and are well aware of the side effects, exactly opposite to what they were trying to achieve. Its most promising vaccine has left people even more vulnerable to the disease than before.The vector is the method by which a vaccine reaches its target. One of the most common in medical research is a genetically modified adenovirus. Adenoviruses usually cause eye and respiratory diseases.

Several of the vaccines currently under development against SARS-CoV-2 use adenovirus as vectors of the genetic code of coronavirus proteins, to train the immune system to recognize and fight it.

Most of these recombinant adenovirus variants do not increase the risk of contracting AIDS. But as early as 2014, immunologist Anthony Fauci himself, director of the US National Institute for Allergic and Infectious Diseases, warned against using Ad5 in vaccines to be distributed in areas affected by HIV, no doubt because he was aware of the results. of the tests mentioned above.

The companies claim to be aware of the problem and guarantee that they have taken action on the risks during the development of the vaccines.

Immunity Bio, which is testing its vaccine in California, before the next phase scheduled for South Africa, says for example that genetic mutations have been applied to its Ad5.

Several tests of anti-Covid-19 vaccines had to be suspended due to adverse reaction cases that, in one case, led to death.

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