Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1993. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press; Saturday, December 4, 1993
The lead investigator on the project, Dr. Richard Haubrich of the University of California, San Diego, said the vaccine is designed to trigger search-and-destroy missions against AIDS by killer cells within the immune system of patients already infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. That virus causes AIDS.
The Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, a group of experts that evaluates proposals for experimental human therapy using manipulated genes, approved a proposal by Haubrich to test the vaccine on 20 patients. Before the experiment can begin, it must also be approved by the director of the NIH and the Food and Drug Administration.
Haubrich said the vaccine will be the first to use genes from the AIDS virus to trigger action by the body's cytotoxic T lymphocytes, or CTLs, the so-called killer cells of the immune system.
"This is a therapy aimed at boosting the immune response to HIV in people who are already infected with the HIV virus," said Haubrich. "This is different from what we normally think of as vaccine, which is to prevent the disease."
The experimental vaccine is actually a modified mouse virus. It is first modified so that it cannot reproduce. Then two harmless genes from HIV are inserted into the mouse virus, along with a bacterial marker gene used to trace the spread of the mouse virus.
In effect, the mouse virus is used as a vehicle to carry the HIV genes into the body.
Once injected, the mouse virus infects cells near the injection site. The virus moves into the nucleus of the cells and the two HIV genes command the cells to make a protein normally found on the surface of the AIDS virus.
This causes the CTLs, or immune system killer cells, to seek out and attack all cells that contain the HIV genes, Haubrich said.
"The immune cells circulate in the bloodstream and they recognize HIV-infected cells throughout the body and kill them," said Haubrich.
Most vaccines, said Haubrich, cause the immune system to produce antibodies against a foreign invader, such as a virus or bacteria. Antibodies, however, can attack only a virus that is in the bloodstream.
"An antibody labels a free-floating virus and it is then destroyed by the immune system or prevented from entering a cell," said Haubrich. "But once a cell is infected with HIV, the antibody can't do anything about it."
Haubrich said the HIV genes are only part of the AIDS virus and they cannot cause infection.
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