Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Agence France Presse (05.17.07) - Friday, May 18, 2007
Louise Daly
"There is optimism that even a less-than-perfect vaccine could benefit both individual recipients and the at-risk community," wrote Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Margaret Johnston, director NIAID's vaccine research program, in a New England Journal of Medicine review.
It is uncertain when first-generation vaccines would become available, but Stage I and II clinical trials are "well into their execution," said Fauci. "Large numbers of people are being vaccinated."
In studies of nonhuman primates, those inoculated by vaccines that targeted T-cells had peak simian immunodeficiency viral loads reduced by a factor of 10. Such vaccines are designed to induce a cellular immune response to reduce viral loads and preserve the immune system. The inoculations also "dramatically" slowed disease progression in many of the infected animals, said Fauci.
The aim of such first-generation T-cell vaccines might be to improve the lives of those who contract HIV and postpone the day when they need to begin daily AIDS drug treatment. And computer modeling suggests an even partially effective HIV vaccine could alter the course of the epidemic, said Fauci and Johnston. Further studies will be needed to test that hypothesis, they noted.
The full report, "An HIV Vaccine - Evolving Concepts," was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2007;356(20):2073-2081).
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