Spanish researchers have developed a new vaccine against the dangerous and previously incurable immune deficiency disease, AIDS. The HIV vaccine is well-tolerated and could reliably prevent the outbreak of the disease, saving thousands of lives. The team from the University of Barcelona reported their success with the new HIV vaccine in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The vaccine strengthens the human immune system and offers a solution to the previous problem of infection of white blood cells. Previous studies have shown that the vaccine, which consists of inactive HIV viruses, is very well-tolerated and can replace antiretroviral drugs in the future.
When AIDS breaks out in the body, the immune system reacts by breaking down and dividing the HIV virus. Some fragments of the virus then find their way into the membranes of the dendritic cells of the immune system. Some membranes then carry the infectious virus on the outer cell membrane. In this way, more and more white blood cells are infected with the dangerous virus. The research team led by Felipe Garcia has now developed a solution to the problem. The team programmed the dendritic cells of 36 AIDS patients. The HIV viruses were made harmless by heat and administered to the subjects. Since the dendritic cells can no longer infect white blood cells due to their inactivity, the human immune response started as usual. The immune response of the vaccine could now also fight active HIV viruses.
Although the current study offers great hope for an effective therapeutic vaccine against AIDS, the researchers emphasize that this is not yet a cure for AIDS. However, the new approach shows that the amount of virus in the patients’ blood plasma can be significantly reduced even without antiretroviral drugs. The maximum effect of the reaction could be demonstrated after twelve weeks, but even after 48 weeks, the subjects performed significantly better than a control group that only received a placebo injection. The researchers hope that this new vaccine will be able to prevent the outbreak of AIDS and save thousands of lives in the future.
