Experimental AIDS vaccine expands hope

The Gleaner, December 5, 2001

A group of rhesian monkeys injected with the vaccine being developed, and later inoculated with the AIDS virus, have survived for over two and a half years and are healthy.

A new experimental vaccine against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, suggests that it could prevent this sexually-transmitted disease and protects the organism, according to the results obtained on tested animals.

The research was developed by the pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, using two groups of healthy rhesian monkeys. One group was immunised three tgimes with the experimental vaccine ASO2A, and later infected with the AIDS virus.

According to GlaxoSmithKline, the control, to prove the effects of the vaccine, was done by implanting the virus in the primates that were not immunised. After about 18 months, the group of monkeys which had been previously protected survived the effects of the virus, and still showed good health. On the other hand, the primates which had not been immunised developed the symptoms of the illness, and eventually died.s This research was repeated with similar results in other groups of rhesian monkeys.

GlaxoSmithKline said that the results of the research with primates will be the basis to begin further medical studies on human beings, starting in the first months of the year 2002. Phase one of these studies will be developed at the end of 2001, with the cooperation of GlaxoSmithKline and the Association of Clinical Studies on AIDS Vaccines of the U.S. National Health Institute.

The experimental vacciPne developed by GlaxoSmithKline works based on the combination of three components: one coadjutor and two antigens. The new feature is the presence of the antigen NefTaf, which is a regulatory protein that the virus needs to reproduce in the infected organism. Although the vaccine study suggest that it is preventive, GlaxoSmithKline will also work to accomplish a therapeutic indication.

According to the studies by the World Health Organisation (WHO), in 1999, about 34.2 million people in the worlld had the HIV virus, and 5.4 million of them contracted AIDS.