About a year ago, there was some discouraging news about
AIDS vaccine research. A promising vaccine candidate failed when it apparently
made test subjects actually more susceptible to HIV infection.
Many
considered the news a major setback in research. But now IAVI, the
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and the Scripps Research Institute have
announced the creation of a new research center. Its goal is to find an AIDS
vaccine by taking a different approach.
 |
| Dr. Seth Berkley, Intrernational AIDS Vaccine Initiative |
Dr.
Seth Berkley is president and CEO of IAVI. From New York, he
spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about why the new
center is being launched.
"The
news a year ago was about a trial looking at a type of immunity called cellular
immunity. Traditionally, the way we create vaccines against diseases is by
making vaccines that produce neutralizing antibodies against the particular
virus. And that is what we'd like to do with HIV. We haven't known how to do
that. So people moved into the cellular area trying to find other ways to get
immunity that might be helpful," he says.
But
Berkley says there were concerns as far back as five years ago about whether
cellular immunity was the best approach. "About five years ago, we started a
neutralizing antibody consortium, a group of laboratories…trying to solve this
perplexing problem of neutralizing anti-bodies, which we know is solvable. And
this latest announcement is one to expand that effort even further," he says.
IAVI's
president explains the two vaccine approach. "The idea is that we would like to
have both neutralizing antibodies and cellular immunity. The neutralizing
antibodies is to try to prevent infections. Cellular immunity would be if some
virus got through it would mop up and kill cells that were infected. So, in an
ideal world, you'd like to have both. But if you could only have one of the
two, neutralizing antibodies would be the one of choice. And so…years ago, we
tried to understand the science better and move forward in trying to solve that
problem," he says.
Berkley
says it's known that neutralizing antibodies exist. "There now have been four
or five examples of antibodies isolated from humans that neutralize most of the
(HIV) strains in the world. And so the challenge then is how do you make a
vaccine that produces antibodies like those," he says. In fact, some people's
immune systems are actually able to keep HIV in check without the help of
antiretroviral drugs.
The failure of an AIDS vaccine
candidate last year is not a total loss. Berkley says it has triggered a lot of
new research. As for the often-asked question – when will there be an AIDS
vaccine? – Berkley says, "It's different now than it was a few years ago
because we had candidates that were moving into efficacy trial and if those had
worked you'd know exactly what the pathway was in timing. At this point…we're
moving a little bit more upstream. So, it's very difficult to predict an actual
time point. But what I'd like to say is that in essence this is a Renaissance
period for AIDS vaccines because we now have a lot more science. There's a lot
more work going on. And so, I trust the power of science and I personally
believe that we will have breakthroughs…in the next few years, given the amount
of effort and the critical mass of people that are working on these problems.
And so I am optimistic that we will get there, but I can't tell you exactly
when."
E-mail This Article
Print Version
