New approach to HIV vaccine
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New research out last month suggests a vaccine has been
designed which - for the first time - will protect people from the HIV
virus.
So far, the team from the Institute of Virology at the University of Maryland
has only tested monkeys, and they note that previous attempts to design
a vaccine have failed. Nevertheless, they think that their design - which
works against many different HIV subtypes - is the most promising yet.
The vaccine, designed by Drs Tim Fouts and Anthony deVico is based on
the idea that when the gp120 protein
Tim Fouts (left) and Anthony deVico: innovative vaccine
of HIV binds to a CD4 cell, it chances shape, so it can
enter the cell. This part is unable to vary much between different strains
or over time, without the virus losing its ability to infect more cells.
The vaccine is designed to neutralise this 'conserved' part of gp120.
The next stage in developing this vaccine will be to see if it can directly
protect animals against HIV and to establish its safety in humans.
Dr Fouts told PN: "If these results translate into humans, we could
have a very successful product."
The vaccine may also be of use to people living with HIV.
Drug resistant HIV increasing-but only in US
People recently infected in the US with HIV are four times
more likely to have a drug resistant virus than people infected in the
mid-90's, says a new study.
Resistance to antiretroviral drugs increased from 3.4 per cent during
1995-98 to 12.4 per cent in
1999-2000. In patients with the resistant strains, antiretroviral therapy took longer to
