Dendritic vaccine may control HIV progression
Scientists have produced a vaccine that may limit replication of the HIV-1 virus and thus prevent progression of the disease.
They developed a vaccine consisting of dendritric cells from each patient’s
own immune system loaded with an inactivated form of HIV-1. This was
injected into 18 HIV-positive patients who had been recorded as having
stable levels of the virus in their blood for the previous six months.
The vaccine was found to induce an HIV-1 specific T-cell response associated
with sustained viral suppression and, in addition, the amount of the
virus in the patients’ plasma was found to decline.
Virus levels decreased by an average of 80 per cent over the first 112
days after the vaccination. Eight patients demonstrated prolonged suppression
of viral load of more than 90 per cent for at least one year.
Furthermore, the scientists were able to identify specific components
of the immune response that are needed to contain the virus, a finding
that may be useful for future research.
The scientists acknowledge the need for a randomised trial with a control
arm, but say that a vaccine capable of controlling viral replication
in this disease would not only allow patients to live without daily antiretroviral
drugs, but would also minimise their risk of transmitting the virus to
healthy people.
The paper appeared in an advance online publication of Nature
Medicine on
28 November. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader