Start testing the AIDS vaccine in humans

2003/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Farmakologia

An AIDS vaccine starts testing in humans for the first time. The vaccine is against the AIDS virus (HIV), the most abundant in Africa and Asia. The tests will last for two years and will be held in the US and South Africa with 48 volunteers per country.

The vaccine aims to produce a protein that forms AIDS and is based on the encephalitis virus (VEE) of Venezuelan horses. The EBV virus has been transformed to be the vector of the vaccine, that is, to carry the vaccine wherever it is needed. Thus, the vector introduces the vaccine into the lymph node cells, causing the genes to be expressed. Consequently, cells produce a protein that produces an immune response.

Vaccinated people are not at risk for EBV or AIDS, as they do not have the necessary gene pool to produce the viruses from these diseases.