The experimental HIV vaccine Phase-I trial has a remarkable 97% effect

The experimental HIV vaccine Phase-I trial has a remarkable 97% effect.  The vaccinators have a targeted immune response.

Recently, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the Scripps Institute jointly announced that a phase 1 clinical trial of a new vaccine strategy to prevent HIV infection has achieved very promising results. This new vaccine can be successful Stimulate the production of rare immune cells, and these immune cells can initially produce antibodies to resist rapidly mutating viruses and infections. Among the vaccinated participants, 97% of the subjects had a targeted response.

William Schief, a researcher at the IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Research Center, said that this study proves the principles of a new HIV vaccine concept, which can also be applied to other pathogens. Through joint research with other researchers, we have proved that this vaccine can stimulate rare immune cells with specific characteristics, and this targeted stimulation is very effective in the human body. We believe that this method may become an HIV vaccine development The key is also crucial for the manufacture of vaccines against other pathogens. Researcher Schief presented the results of this study at the International AIDS Association HIV Prevention Research Virtual Conference.

This research has laid a certain foundation for later scientists to conduct more clinical trials. These trials will seek to improve and expand this method. The long-term goal is to produce a safe and effective HIV vaccine. Next, IAVI and The Scripps Institute will cooperate with the biotechnology company Moderna to develop and test an mRNA-based vaccine, and use this method to generate equally beneficial immune cells. The use of mRNA technology will greatly accelerate the development of HIV vaccines. HIV currently affects the health of 38 million people worldwide. It is well known that it is one of the most difficult viruses to use vaccine targeting. This is largely because HIV will continue to evolve into different strains to escape host immunity System attack.

Image source: Sergey Menis, IAVI

Mark Feinberg, MD, said that given that human beings urgently need an HIV vaccine to control the global pandemic of the disease, I think the relevant research results will have a broad impact on researchers engaged in HIV vaccines because they decide which research directions should be pursued. ; And the cooperation between individuals and institutions will also make this important and complex clinical trial so successful, which will accelerate future HIV vaccine research.

For decades, HIV researchers have been looking for the “Holy Grail” that can stimulate the body’s immune system to produce rare and powerful antibodies that can effectively neutralize different HIV strains, which are called “broad-spectrum neutralizing antibodies” (bnAbs) The special blood protein or the spike that can adsorb HIV (the protein on the surface of the virus that allows the virus to enter human cells) and disable the virus in a specific way.

In order to induce the production of bnAbs, researchers must initiate the process by inducing the correct B cells. B cells have certain characteristics that enable them to develop into bnAb-secreting cells; in this clinical trial, the target cells only accounted for At one millionth of all original B cells; in order to obtain the correct antibody response, researchers first need to stimulate the correct B cells. The data from this experiment affirmed the ability of the vaccine to be immunogenic. In addition, the initiation step will also be the first stage of the multi-step vaccine design that causes the production of different types of bnAbs.

The strategy of targeting B cells with specific characteristics is called “germline-targeting”, because these young B cells can often exhibit antibodies encoded by unmutated or germline genes; research The staff believes that this method is also suitable for studying other types of pathogens, such as influenza, dengue fever, Zika virus, hepatitis C virus and malaria.

Dr. Dennis Burton said that this may be a huge achievement for the entire vaccine science research; this clinical trial shows that we may be able to drive the body’s immune response in a predictable way, thereby creating new and better Vaccines can target HIV but are not limited to HIV. We believe that this type of vaccine function will be more widely used in the future, thus opening a new scene for vaccinology research.

The clinical trial called IAVI G001 was initiated by IAVI and was conducted in two locations: the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; the researchers recruited 48 healthy adult volunteers, and the participants received a placebo or two doses. It is a vaccine compound of eOD-GT8 60mer and an adjuvant developed by GSK.

Researcher McElrath says that this is a landmark study in the field of HIV vaccine development, and the results show that the researchers have achieved success in the first step of inducing broad-spectrum neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1; The original new design, clinical trials and molecular analysis of B cells all provide a roadmap for accelerating the further research progress of HIV vaccines. Later, researchers will continue to conduct in-depth studies to confirm the effectiveness and safety of this new HIV vaccine.

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