This 90 Percent Successful Vaccine May Be Our Best Chance to Eradicate AIDS

• Lan wrote on 2011-09-30 22:31

  Spanish researchers have completed the first human trial of a new vaccine against HIV. It has been successful in 90% of the HIV-free volunteers during phase I testing. This vaccine brings great hope to eradicate this plague forever.
  The team lead by Dr Mariano Esteban, a researcher at the Spanish National Research Council's Biotechnology National Centre, has been working on this method since 1999. They are using an attenuated virus called the MVA-B, a variation of the Modified Ankara Vaccinia, which was previously used to eradicate smallpox. The Modified Ankara Vaccinia also forms the base of other vaccines. The B refers to the HIV-B, the most common HIV subtype in Europe.
  
  Dr Esteban's team inserted the HIV genes Gag, Pol, Nef and Env in MVA's genetic sequence. In 2008, they tried the resulting HIV nuke on mice and monkeys. It was a complete success.
  
  Successful human test
  The first human test results were published in Vaccine and Journal of Virology. In the experiment, scientists injected the vaccine in 24 of 30 HIV-free volunteers. Six volunteers were treated with a placebo vaccine—they didn't experience any effect. But 90% of the treated subjects developed a very strong immunological response against the HIV virus. 85% kept the immunological reaction for at least one year, which is really good news.
  
  According to their results, there were no significant secondary effects in any of the patients, which was one of the major objectives of to be tested in this clinical trial.
  
  Despite the success, Dr Esteban is cautious:
  
  [T]he treatment has only been tested on 30 volunteers and, while [the vaccine] provokes a powerful response in most of the cases, it's still to soon if the resulting defense would be effective against an actual [HIV] infection.
  
  The team will now start another phase I trial, injecting the vaccine in HIV-infected people. The objective of this trial is to test the therapeutical effect of the vaccine in these patients.
  
  According to Dr Esteban, "in principle, the immunological profile of MVA-B satisfies the requirements for a promising vaccine against the HIV, like the creation of antibodies and the activation of key cells in the defense against the virus." Sadly, it is still far away from commercialization: they need to test this on phase II and III trials, injecting vaccinated volunteers with the actual HIV virus on a larger scale.
  
  Hopefully, one day this one will nail that HIV bastard down.

  
  
  http://gizmodo.com/5844706/this-90-successful-vaccine-may-be-our-best-chance-to-eradicate-aids
• chaolin wrote on 2011-09-30 22:40
  This would be more insightful given the demographics of the people tested. Hell, it's well known that a certain genome in Europe is immune to HIV. Still, a step forward nonetheless.
• Chiyuri wrote on 2011-09-30 22:44
  Earth: Darn humans.. I must find a new way to remove those evolutionary dead end apes..
• abc33kr wrote on 2011-09-30 23:25
  humans:1
  chiyuri:0
• cupid wrote on 2011-09-30 23:35

  Quote from chaolin;604252:

  . Hell, it's well known that a certain genome in Europe is immune to HIV. Still, a step forward nonetheless.

  
  
  Yes, some people who are HIV+ have genes which make them immune to the effects of AIDS... If we could somehow utilize how this genetic works, then maybe we'll be that one step closer :D
  
  If only we could just implement that HIV-immune gene into other individuals... However, natural selection takes generations to occur... Plus with the way that humans live, natural selection wouldn't work as well due to the way of life that humans live in are really different from most animals...
  
  Oh brother. Well, evolution will get us one day I guess....
• Chiyuri wrote on 2011-09-30 23:36

  Quote from abc33kr;604319:

  humans:1
  chiyuri:0

  
  
  Humans: 0
  Chiyuri: 2
  
  
  If you don't write what such things are about, you can make it say whatever you want..
• abc33kr wrote on 2011-10-01 02:02

  Quote from Chiyuri;604343:

  Humans: 0
  Chiyuri: 2
  
  
  If you don't write what such things are about, you can make it say whatever you want..

  
  
  rep i got from making my post: 1
  chiyuri: 0
• Strawberry wrote on 2011-10-01 02:13
  Yeah, natural selection ends up taking ages... Unfortunately, it doesn't work as fast as we want it to. If it actually went by way faster, then maybe we'd find a immunity to many of the diseases and such out there at the moment.
  
  But at least it's one step closer. It probably would've been more accurate if they actually tested it on people that actually had it first, instead of people who didn't, though. That way, we know it really would be a step closer.
• TA wrote on 2011-10-01 02:31

  Quote from chaolin;604252:

  This would be more insightful given the demographics of the people tested. Hell, it's well known that a certain genome in Europe is immune to HIV. Still, a step forward nonetheless.

  
  
  It's a mutation called Delta 32, or CCR5. It's actually more of missing certain genes than it is some kind of immunity. It's effective because HIV tends to need those genes to do its nastiness.
  
  The vaccine looks promising though. I'll have to see if I can find any published technical details on it.
• Juno wrote on 2011-10-01 02:38
  It'd work faster if we just let people die, but...yeah...
  
  edit: natural selection, that is.
• Oizen wrote on 2011-10-01 02:39
  [video=youtube;prZXNhIG5js]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prZXNhIG5js[/video]
• Kingofrunes wrote on 2011-10-01 09:59
  What I'm more interested in is this...
  
  What about the 10% of the HIV free patients who participated in this?
  
  Do they now have AIDs?
  
  Oh well, glad we are getting closer to solving the problem of AIDs. Hopefully, we'll be able to find a cure in another 10 years.
• Xemnas wrote on 2011-10-01 10:02

  Quote from Kingofrunes;604735:

  What I'm more interested in is this...
  
  What about the 10% of the HIV free patients who participated in this?
  
  

  
  They turned into zombies.
  
  [video=youtube;1ZuK_wYrqp8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZuK_wYrqp8[/video]
• TA wrote on 2011-10-01 10:49
  Hmm... interesting...
  
  The vaccinia virus (VACV) C6 protein has sequence similarities with the poxvirus family Pox_A46, involved in regulation of host immune responses, but its role is unknown. Here, we have characterized the C6 protein and its effects in virus replication, innate immune sensing and immunogenicity in vivo. C6 is a 18.2 kDa protein, which is expressed early during virus infection and localizes to the cytoplasm of infected cells. Deletion of the C6L gene from the poxvirus vector MVA-B expressing HIV-1 Env, Gag, Pol and Nef antigens from clade B (MVA-B ΔC6L) had no effect on virus growth kinetics; therefore C6 protein is not essential for virus replication. The innate immune signals elicited by MVA-B ΔC6L in human macrophages and monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) are characterized by the up-regulation of the expression of IFN-β and IFN-α/β-inducible genes. In a DNA prime/MVA boost immunization protocol in mice, flow cytometry analysis revealed that MVA-B ΔC6L enhanced the magnitude and polyfunctionality of the HIV-1-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell memory immune responses, with most of the HIV-1 responses mediated by the CD8(+) T-cell compartment with an effector phenotype. Significantly, while MVA-B induced preferentially Env- and Gag-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses, MVA-B ΔC6L induced more Gag-Pol-Nef-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses. Furthermore, MVA-B ΔC6L enhanced the levels of antibodies against Env in comparison with MVA-B. These findings revealed that C6 can be considered as an immunomodulator and that deleting C6L gene in MVA-B confers an immunological benefit by enhancing IFN-β-dependent responses and increasing the magnitude and quality of the T-cell memory immune responses to HIV-1 antigens. Our observations are relevant for the improvement of MVA vectors as HIV-1 vaccines.
  
  Figure 1. In vitro characterization of MVA-B ΔC6L deletion mutant.
  Figure 2. Characterization of C6 expression and localization.
  Figure 3. MVA-B ΔC6L induces the production of IFN-β and type I IFN inducible genes in macrophages and dendritic cells.
  Figure 4. Immunization with MVA-B ΔC6L enhances the magnitude of HIV-1-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell memory immune responses.
  Figure 5. Immunization with MVA-B ΔC6L enhances the polyfunctionality of HIV-1-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell memory immune responses.
  Figure 6. Immunization with MVA-B ΔC6L enhances the humoral immune responses elicited against HIV-1 gp160 protein.
  
  Full results (quite long, and cited)
• Xemnas wrote on 2011-10-01 10:58

  Quote from TA;604756:

  Hmm... interesting...
  [snipped]

  
  
  Uh... English please?