Salvation is coming: a new HIV vaccine has successfully passed human trials

The experimental "mosaic" vaccine was tested on healthy monkeys and humans. The result exceeded all expectations — the immune system responded and began to produce antibodies! But scientists are not losing their heads, research will continue.

Scientists from Harvard Medical School, led by Dan Barouch, have published the results of studies on the response to the HIV vaccine.

From February 24 to October 16, 2015, 393 volunteers from the USA, Africa and Thailand became participants in an important experiment for humanity. All of them were healthy people aged 18 to 50 years with a low probability of HIV infection.

The volunteers were divided into 8 groups: 7 of them received a vaccine, and the 8th received a placebo (a neutral substance passed off as a medicine). But no one knew who had the placebo and who had the vaccine. Each participant of the experiment was given four injections: on the 1st, 12th, 24th and 48th week of testing.

As a result, specific antibodies began to form in all the subjects, and 83% of the volunteers had an increased production of T-lymphocytes (they destroy the "wrong" cells).

In addition to the obvious positive results, it is worth noting that the vaccination scheme itself turned out to be portable and safe. Side effects appeared only in 1% of cases — it was diarrhea and back pain.

A similar scheme was tested on 72 rhesus monkeys. Scientists were also interested in how vaccination would help in the fight against SHIV, the monkey analogue of HIV. It turned out that after the experiment, 67% of primates acquired immunity to the disease.

The results are still too modest to recommend mass vaccination. At the next stage of the research, 2,600 African women at risk of HIV infection will become volunteers.

The HIV epidemic has been going on for 35 years. At the moment, 37 million people have been diagnosed, and more than a million new cases of infection are recorded every year.

During this time, scientists have developed four vaccines that were able to reach human trials, but their effect was too insignificant. The new vaccine has a broader composition, and also includes successful components of previous versions.