TRIALS of a combination of two promising AIDS vaccine candidates in Kenya, Uganda and the UK have produced disappointing results.
Like nearly all of the 30 or so vaccines that have been tested in people, the pair were designed to make immune cells recognise and destroy HIV. Hopes that this would provide protection arose from observations that this was the basis of some prostitutes鈥� apparent immunity from HIV. But in the trial, immunity was boosted in only a quarter of 205 volunteers given the test vaccine.
Vaccine developers who heard the bad news at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, last week are refocusing efforts on vaccines designed to produce an antibody response as well as a cell-mediated response. The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which sponsored the latest trials, also plans to pursue a live vaccine based on a weakened form of HIV 鈥� a high-risk strategy since the weakened HIV might mutate into a disease-causing strain. 鈥淲e鈥檒l be announcing a consortium to look at live vaccine approaches later this year,鈥� said a spokesman.
Advertisement