HIV may Help in the Battle Against HIV

Vaccines against many viruses, including flu, are made from deactivated versions of those viruses, but such an approach was previously dismissed as too risky in the case of HIV.

Vaccines against many viruses, including flu, are made from deactivated versions of those viruses, but such an approach was previously dismissed as too risky in the case of HIV. Now, scientists are resurrecting the controversial approach.

VIRxSYS of Gaithersburg, Maryland, is planning to inject people with an HIV vaccine made of the deadly virus itself, albeit a deactivated version.

AIDS Victims Receive Treatment Despite the Chaos of the Haiti Quake
Even in the chaos left by the January 12 earthquake, Resena and her one-year-old baby made their monthly visit to Port-au-Prince's Ghiesko clinic for AIDS treatment.

Their plan follows successful tests of a similar vaccine against SIV - also known as simian HIV - in monkeys.

"We said 'let's use HIV against itself', and that's what we're doing," New Scientist quoted Gary McGarrity, VIRxSYS's vice president of scientific and clinical affairs, as saying.

VIRxSYS researchers described how they vaccinated monkeys, and then six months later injected them with SIV.

HIV/AIDS Cases Among Older Adults on the Rise
Scientists have observed a rise in the number of HIV/AIDS cases among adults 50 and older over the course of the epidemic.

Within weeks of receiving the injection of SIV, concentrations of the virus had fallen by at least 95 per cent in those treated.

After a year, when the trial ended, these concentrations remained low, whereas untreated monkeys became progressively sicker as their immune systems were depleted by the virus.

US AIDS Clinics Ban Merck Reps Over Drug Costs
Merck Pharmaceuticals has been accused of of price-gouging its AIDS treatment Isentress by the largest US HIV/AIDS health care provider

What's more, in vaccinated animals, concentrations of CD4+ cells - the immune cells that both HIV and SIV attack and kill - remained the same, suggesting their immune systems were able to withstand SIV infection.

The findings have been presented at the 2010 annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in San Francisco. (ANI)

Source-ANI
SAV