Brazilian anti-HIV vaccine to be tested in 3 years

The anti-HIV vaccine, developed by the Medical School of the University of São Paulo, is expected to start being tested on humans in three years, says researcher Edécio Cunha Neto, project coordinator.

According to him, a new study involving monkeys is to be conducted within 5 months. “This study will last for 20 to 24 months, after which we’ll be able to run tests on humans. This means that the study with humans will be underway in around 3 years.”

Cunha Neto further reported that the study with humans will enable scientists to ascertain whether the vaccine is safe and capable of producing an effective immune response.

Developed in a partnership with the Butantan Institute, one of the world’s largest biomedical research centers, the vaccine has already been successfully tested on hamsters and on four Rhesus monkeys. Researchers found the results obtained in primates surprising.”

Out of the four monkeys tested, the animal that showed the worst performance produced a response four to five times more intense than that seen in hamsters, and the highest-performing one, ten times as much. Cunha Neto said, “It came as a surprise to us, and it was promising. It was something that encouraged us to keep working with the material.”

He also explained that this vaccine is different from others inasmuch as it targets parts of the virus which do not change after transmission between individuals. One of the biggest challenges in creating an anti-HIV vaccine, he says, is the virus’s high viriability – its genome can vary by up to 20% between any two patients.

In the next testing stage with monkeys 28 animals should be used. In order to inject the genes from the HIV fragments into the subject, weakened viruses will be used, like those used in vaccination campaigns. Thus, monkeys are expected to develop an immunological reaction against non-varying HIV fragments.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira