Researchers starts HIV-1 vaccine on human after its partial success in rhesus monkey
Journal Science is known as a widely read journal and recently, a
study was published that revealed a new vaccine for AIDS. Scientists
have already tested the vaccine on non-human primates and the results of
those tests have been quite impressive. The vaccine succeeded in
preventing HIV infection in 50% of the monkeys it was tested on.
In course of the study, researchers first injected the monkeys with
the new AIDS vaccine.
Then the vaccinated monkeys again got injected
with simian immunodeficiency virus or SIV, which is a virus with similar
traits as HIV. The monkeys were injected six times in all; the
researchers did so for establishing the sustainability of the vaccine.
What the researchers discovered was quite impressive. They realized
that the vaccine could successfully prevent SIV in around 50% of the
monkeys even after high exposure to the infection causing virus. Janssen, the pharmaceutical company behind this new AIDS vaccine and a
wing of Johnson & Johnson, after seeing the fascinating results of
the study on non-human primates, has already started human trials of the
vaccine Part of the trials include 400 patients from the United States, East
Africa, South Africa and Thailand. The year 2007 witnessed the last
human trial of an AIDS vaccine. That was followed by several years of
struggle for scientists working to formulate an effective AIDS vaccine.
If results of this small human trial turn out to be impressive,
scientists have plans of conducting a bigger clinical trial on humans
within the next couple of years.
The newly formulated AIDS vaccine needs to be administered in two
steps. The first one involves injection of cold weakened virus. The
second one, on the other hand, involves injection of an extremely pure
form of an HIV surface protein. This second injection would give one’s
immune system the power of reacting strongly to the targeted invader.
SOURCE:DISPATCH TIMES
