A new HIV vaccine has shown remarkably promising results. Its developers are now turning to the mRNA technology used by biotech company Moderna for its Covid vaccine to hopefully get their HIV jab over the finish line.
The new vaccine has been developed by nonprofit drug developer International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.
They announced the results of a first phase clinical trial in early February, but the news only began to trend this week following a viral tweet (no pun intended) from vaccine specialist, Dr. Ayoade Alakija.
“WOW 😳 New HIV vaccine with a 97% antibody response rate in phase I human trials. This is the most effective trial HIV vaccine to date. It is based on the Moderna’s COVID vaccine. COVID tech acceleration could change Rx for cancer & HIV in future.”
WOW 😳 New HIV vaccine with a 97% antibody response rate in phase I human trials. This is the most effective trial HIV vaccine to date. It is based on the Moderna’s COVID vaccine. COVID tech acceleration could change Rx for cancer & HIV in future. https://t.co/3Nl0UJj6xW
— Dr. Ayoade Alakija (@yodifiji) April 4, 2021
It should be emphasized this is just the first phase of human trials, involving only 48 participants. However, that’s not stopped people from getting excited about the impressive result, and the fact this particular vaccine takes a new approach.
Related: President Biden vowed to end the HIV epidemic by 2025 – but how realistic is that goal?
It’s has been notoriously difficult to produce a vaccine against HIV because there are many strains of the virus and it rapidly mutates.
This new vaccine has been shown to produce a precursor to HIV antibodies in 97% of subjects. Rather than produce a specific antibody against a strain of HIV, it stimulates specialized blood proteins that can attach to the spikes on HIV viruses. This could theoretically disable them from entering human cells.
This is similar to the mRNA technology used by Moderna, which stimulates cells to naturally produce proteins that can prevent viruses from taking hold.
“This study demonstrates proof of principle for a new vaccine concept for HIV, a concept that could be applied to other pathogens, as well,” said IAVI’s William Schief.
IAVI will next partner with Moderna to take advantage of the specific mRNA technology the latter used to develop its Covid vaccine. They think this could significantly accelerate the pace of its own HIV vaccine development.
They also hope that if successful against a fast-mutating virus like HIV, the technology could be developed against other diseases, such as Hepatitis C, malaria – or even some forms of cancer.
“This is a very innovative approach to developing a vaccine that hasn’t been done before,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventative medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, to ABC.
mRNA vaccine technology did not appear overnight last year. It was built upon work done slowly over the past three decades. However, the Covid pandemic prompted a rapid acceleration in research, leading to the arrival of the vaccines now being rolled out around the world.
Although this latest news on a potential HIV vaccine is still in its early stages, it is hopeful and noteworthy. As writer David Z. Morris points out in a thoughtful piece in Forbes, it also hints at what miracles can be achieved when governments decide to throw large amounts of money at medical research.
Kangol2
Sounds good & I hope it works! It would be a global lifesaver!
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Harley
The pharmaceutical industry would lose billions on an HIV vaccine when they can hook millions of people on a $10,000 a year for life treatment to help you “ live with the disease.” I wouldn’t get to excited about this going forward.
Heywood Jablowme
But a NEW company that’s making zero dollars from the current system can make $XXX per vaccine and drive the $10,000 per year companies out of the HIV business.
Max
let’s hope it does go forward. it opens lots of doors for other cures and the fame a pharmaceutical company gets from it can go a long way to keep it supported/funded for other research, etc.
pills are so antiquated and can be toxic to the kidneys and liver.
Den
The conspiracy theory based notion that drug companies do not want cures for chronic diseases has been around for years: ever since somebody imagined (wrongly) that a magic “cure for cancer” must both exist and be easily found.
There has never been any proof for this notion at all. There will always be “orphan diseases” (rare and difficult degenerative diseases as well as genetic and mitochondrial disorders) which will not be curable for the drug companies to make fortunes on. And there will always be allergies, new emerging illnesses and other medical conditions needing drugs: as well as pathogen caused illnesses that simply resist eradication. Big Pharma does not need to hide cures or not research them in order to make huge amounts of money.
frankcar1965
You must not be HIV positive, because my one pill for HIV costs 36K per year.
frankcar1965
If you had read the article, the developer, AIDS Vaccine Initiative, is NON-PROFIT.
gk98
Vaccine would only protect people from infection, just like PrEP, it would do nothing to people already infected, dumbass
Liquid Silver
It’s amazing what can get done when Senators start getting sick.
linedrive
That would be incredible. Here’s hoping…
JromeGervais09
Conspiracy thinkers believe in a flat world. Scientific studies lead to theoretical science, scientific methods to test the theories, applied science, and practical science. The small pox vaccine, polio vaccine, flu vaccine are results of all of the above and it too many trials and errors to save millions upon millions of lives. That is applied science. It costs millions and millions of dollars to go through all of these steps above and decades of hard work for the scientists hidden in laboratories that are never in the light. We focus on the pharmaceutical companies only. It took 30 to 40 years of scientific studies to reach the mRNA or mDNA conclusions from many failed tests, but it paid off. Quit crying about too much rain after a drought.
dhmonarch89
sounds good, but also a little sad to think if they had put such a mighty effort into an HIV vac in the 80s/90s as they did in a Covid vac- so many people would have survived, but of course, the government didn’t give a damn about a bunch of gay men dying.
winemaker
Sadly there’s no money in the ‘cure’. That being said there very likely have been so called ‘cures’ for many maladies in the past few years given how far medical research has advanced,. Smallpox being a prime example as well as polio ,horrible maladies of the past that now are practically non existent and treated with effective vaccines and anti viral drugs. In the long run, there’s no money in the cure only long term ‘maintenance’, sad to say
cuteguy
I hope the hiv vaccine proves to be effective. Just goes to show they always had the science to produce this, just not the motivation. In a way, the covid epidemic has been a blessing for HIV/AIDS research. I’m sick of being on prep
Heywood Jablowme
No, they didn’t “always have the science to produce this.” mRNA technology is recent and Moderna (ModeRNA) was founded only about ten years ago. HIV is unfortunately much more complex than Covid-19 is.
dre23222
All we can do is wish as I’m not a researcher or doctor. Obviously finding a cure would put the pharmaceutical industry in a shambles. But if you could find vaccine related to Covid so fast I don’t understand why it’s so hard to find a cure for HIV. So many lives would’ve be saved by now. But as someone pointed out in this thread, finding a cure a long time ago would’ve saved a lot of gay lives and I guess the gov’t didn’t care about that.
Invader7
Covid and HIV are two very distinct viruses. HIV has MANY strains and very rapidly mutates . I know of a highly respected virology researcher @ the TMC ( the Texas Medical Center – the largest medical center in the world, BTW ) and she showed me a LIVE sample of the HIV virus under a microscope . It literally , within a very short period of time , mutated itself into another strain. That is one of the main reasons creating a HIV vaccine is so extremely difficult. ANY advance in medical research is better than nothing. 40+ years ago people were dropping dead from the HIV scourge. Instead of bickering with each other on these sites and insulting one another, we NEED to come together as a UNITED community and DEMAND MORE & EQUAL support from society . At least we got rid of Adolph Drumpf….Cause he’s anti-EVERYTHING….And Biden is pushing on further progress. Which is better than the regressive policies of Drumpf !!!
Cam
Of course it took a new infectious disease that hit straight people to move vaccine technology along.
That said, great news!
hansniemeijer
hiv started as a “gay cancer”. however, the “h” in hiv means human, not homosexual. I lost friends to aids and to covid. So talking about str8 victims being the reason for a vaccine against hiv is a bit strange.
hansniemeijer
hiv seems to be more difficult to rid off than covid
Invader7
Once a deadly scourge starts killing heteros , it’s amazing how fast resources are expended to prevent /stop /eradicate said scourge.