A Groundbreaking HIV Vaccine Is Having Success In Human Trials

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HIV has been infecting human beings since at least the 1980s, and the disease has devastated millions of families all over the globe.

Now, the early success of a new vaccine in human trials could signal an end to that particular nightmare in the very near future.

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HIV has been notoriously hard to cure because the virus typically produces too small of an immune response to fight. This trial has been working on a vaccine that can produce broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAb) that are up to the task – and these early results show they can induce precursors.

The results are fascinating because bnAb-precursors B cells are uncommon in humans; they rarely develop during infections. If we can get them to, though, they could be used to not only to fight globally-diverse strains of HIV, but diseases like influenza and hepatitis C, too.

iStock 1300036732 A Groundbreaking HIV Vaccine Is Having Success In Human Trials

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Participants in the trial received either a placebo, a low-dose, or a high-dose vaccine administered eight weeks apart. 35 out of the 36 recipients of the vaccine produced a favorable immune response.

They’re using an approach known as germline targeting, which targets the small number of B cells present in the human body. They will weakly bond to an encountered pathogen, slowly producing better and better antibodies that will neutralize the virus.

The hope was that a vaccine able to stimulate B cells to produce bnAbs could be the answer to a longstanding problem.

Though this is not a straightforward step to a HIV vaccine, but their results are promising and herald anew era of precision vaccine designs.

iStock 1394452329 A Groundbreaking HIV Vaccine Is Having Success In Human Trials

Image Credit: iStock

This would be a huge relief to the estimated 38+ million people worldwide who are living with HIV, many of whom lack access to the current effective treatments for one reason or another.

For now, we can all support marginalized and at-risk communities by doing our part to fight stigma and encouraging officials to make sure life-saving dugs are available to everyone who needs them.

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Source: https://twistedsifter.com/2022/12/a-groundbreaking-hiv-vaccine-is-having-success-in-human-trials/

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