14 DAY TRIAL // An HIV/AIDS vaccine has successfully been tested on monkey by researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute.
In a paper published in the journal Nature on September 11, the researchers explain that, according to their tests, the vaccine proved surprisingly effective.
More precisely, it appears that it managed to clear the animals' bodies of the AIDS-causing virus.
The scientists detail that, in order to test the effectiveness of this vaccine, they first administered it to 16 monkeys.
Later, the animals were exposed to a virus dubbed simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV, for short).
As the researchers explain, this virus is the non-human primate form of HIV. It causes AIDS in monkeys, and tests have shown that it is more deadly than the virus form that infects humans.
Of the 16 monkeys, 9 managed to fight off the SIV infection. Thus, although initial tests showed that they did contract the virus, investigations carried out later on revealed that, thanks to the vaccine, their bodies soon eliminated all traces of SIV.
Science News tells us that, as surprising as this may sound, the vaccine used to rid these monkeys of SIV was engineered from a mutant form of another virus, i.e. cytomegalovirus, otherwise known as CMV.
This mutant CMV form trained the monkeys' T-cells, which are part and parcel of their immune systems, to seek and destroy cells infected with SIV.
“Through this method we were able to teach the monkey's body to better 'prepare its defenses' to combat the disease,” researcher Louis Picker explains.
“Our vaccine mobilized a T-cell response that was able to overtake the SIV invaders in 50 percent of the cases treated. Moreover, in those cases with a positive response, our testing suggests SIV was banished from the host,” he adds.
The scientists who worked on this project hope that it will not take long for them to roll out a human clinical trial intended to test whether or not a genetically engineered CMV form could also help treat HIV infections.
“This latest research suggests that certain immune responses elicited by a new vaccine may also have the ability to completely remove HIV from the body,” Louis Picker argued.