First HIV vaccines given to Oxford trial volunteers in fresh hope for 40 year fight

[Elderberry]

Mirror By Martin Bagot 7/6/2021

In what scientists hope could be a critical blow against the disease, volunteers have received the first HIV vaccinations as part of an Oxford University trial as 'an effective HIV vaccine has been elusive for 40 years'

The first jabs have been given as part of a trial to develop an effective vaccine against HIV.

The first HIV vaccinations have been administered to volunteers as part of the Oxford University trial.

Thirteen healthy, HIV-negative adults, aged 18-65 and who are considered not to be at high risk of infection, received one dose of the vaccine on Monday.

This will be followed by a further booster dose in four weeks and scientists hope it could strike a critical blow against the disease.

More: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/first-hiv-vaccines-given-volunteers-24473264

[Kamaji]

What type of vaccine?  Dead virus, attenuated virus, or mRNA?

[thackney]

What type of vaccine?  Dead virus, attenuated virus, or mRNA?

Yes.

Oxford University launch clinical trial for HIV vaccine
https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/oxford-uni-hiv-vaccine-trial/

...The clinical trial, known as HIV-CORE-0052, will test the HIVconsvX vaccine. This vaccine is a “mosaic” which is capable of targeting a range of HIV-1 variants, opening up the possibility that this single drug could be used across the globe....

...While most HIV vaccine candidates work by inducing antibodies generated by B-cells, HIVconsvX induces the immune system’s potent, pathogen obliterating T cells, targeting them to highly conserved and therefore vulnerable regions of HIV – an “Achilles heel” common to most HIV variants....



Tetravalent Immunogen Assembled from Conserved Regions of HIV-1 and Delivered as mRNA Demonstrates Potent Preclinical T-Cell Immunogenicity and Breadth
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32640600/

...We postulated that focusing a T-cell response on the most vulnerable regions of the HIV-1 proteome while maximizing a perfect match between the vaccine and circulating viruses will control HIV-1 replication. We currently use a combination of replication-deficient simian (chimpanzee) adenovirus and poxvirus modified vaccinia virus Ankara to deliver bivalent conserved-mosaic immunogens to human volunteers. Here, we exploit the mRNA platform by designing tetravalent immunogens designated as HIVconsvM, and demonstrate that mRNA formulated in lipid nanoparticles induces potent, broad and polyfunctional T-cell responses in a pre-clinical model....

[PeteS in CA]

What type of vaccine?  Dead virus, attenuated virus, or mRNA?

Interesting question, and the Mirror's article does not speak to that detail. Nor do Vaccitech, Oxford's commercial company, nor AstraZeneca, Oxford's partner in the production and distribution of Oxford's Covid vaccine.

Of the other three major vaccine technologies - protein sub-unit, viral vector, and mRNA - Oxford's Covid vaccine uses viral vector technology. If I understand how protein sub-unit vaccines work, I think that technology would not work with HIV. So I think the most likely technology for this HIV vaccine is viral vector.

[Cyber Liberty]

...and who was tasked with creating this "vaccine" 40 years ago?

[rustynail]

Where do they put the vaccine?

[PeteS in CA]

...and who was tasked with creating this "vaccine" 40 years ago?

So it's Dr. Fauci's fault that traditional dead/inactivated vaccine technology used 40 years ago cannot work with HIV? Further, while NIAID does partner with companies that develop vaccines, NIAID does not develop vaccines.

Blaming Fauci for the lack of an HIV vaccine is silly.

[Cyber Liberty]

So it's Dr. Fauci's fault that traditional dead/inactivated vaccine technology used 40 years ago cannot work with HIV? Further, while NIAID does partner with companies that develop vaccines, NIAID does not develop vaccines.

Blaming Fauci for the lack of an HIV vaccine is silly.

I always considered the concept of an HIV vaccine "silly."   

[jmyrlefuller]

I always considered the concept of an HIV vaccine "silly."   

Hand'em some antibiotics and zinc. That ought to take care of the problem! 

[Kamaji]

I always considered the concept of an HIV vaccine "silly."   

How come?

[jmyrlefuller]

How come?

Because HIV attacks the immune system itself.

[Cyber Liberty]

How come?

At the time, and perhaps to this day, they never had a direct test for HIV, only antibody tests.  They were learning then how to stampede the population with fear of disease, so there were almost daily announcements of how many people tested positive for antibodies.  Presence of antibodies were the reason for throwing out a lot of blood bank material because people were catching it via transfusions and blood-related medicines to treat Hemophilia.

Well, an effective vaccine would do a serviceable job of identifying everybody as having HIV.  And that's why it seemed silly to me, way back then.  Folly.

And it comes as no shock that Gollum Fauci was at the middle of it all.

[Kamaji]

At the time, and perhaps to this day, they never had a direct test for HIV, only antibody tests.  They were learning then how to stampede the population with fear of disease, so there were almost daily announcements of how many people tested positive for antibodies.  Presence of antibodies were the reason for throwing out a lot of blood bank material because people were catching it via transfusions and blood-related medicines to treat Hemophilia.

Well, an effective vaccine would do a serviceable job of identifying everybody as having HIV.  And that's why it seemed silly to me, way back then.  Folly.

And it comes as no shock that Gollum Fauci was at the middle of it all.

Possibly.  It would require a more nuanced way of determining who was a carrier of live virus and who not.  It doesn't mean that a vaccine would be silly, just that real life is complicated.

[Kamaji]

Because HIV attacks the immune system itself.

That doesn't make a lot of sense; my apologies if that offends you.

[Cyber Liberty]

Possibly.  It would require a more nuanced way of determining who was a carrier of live virus and who not.  It doesn't mean that a vaccine would be silly, just that real life is complicated.

Don't forget, this was 1981 level med technology.  We've come a bit in the past four decades.  I clarify:  "It was silly at the time."

[Kamaji]

Don't forget, this was 1981 level med technology.  We've come a bit in the past four decades.  I clarify:  "It was silly at the time."

Fair enough.  That's a reasonable clarification.

[Cyber Liberty]

Fair enough.  That's a reasonable clarification.

Thanks! 

Now...Fauci has been on the job all 40 of those years.  How many millions has he been paid by the taxpayers for HIV?  He was in the project since the very beginning.  He knew right away that the solution was far outside of any foreseeable advancements in tech.  In my foolish view, that makes him a con man who collected far more than PT Barnum in remuneration.

[PeteS in CA]

Per this Daily Mail article, the experimental Oxford HIV vaccine uses viral vector technology, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9757193/New-HIV-vaccine-trial-starts-University-Oxford.html .

BioNTech, developer of the mRNA vaccine produced and distributed by Pfizer, is working on 2 possible vaccines for HIV, https://abc7.com/mrna-covid-vaccine-pfizer-moderna/10734145/ .

Ditto Moderna, https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-announces-clinical-progress-its-industry-leading-mrna .

Janssen Research (J&J) has an HIV vaccine in Phase 3 testing, https://www.jnj.com/latest-news/the-quest-for-a-global-preventive-hiv-vaccine-reaches-a-new-milestone . My guess is that it also uses viral vector technology.

Apparently the problem with a traditional technology HIV vaccine is that the virus mutates readily, and traditional technology vaccines are too variant specific. Viral vector and mRNA vaccines can be programmed so that a stable part of the HIV virus will be detected, letting recipients' immune systems attack more or less any variant of the HIV virus.

[jmyrlefuller]

But again, vaccines are designed to allow the immune system to recognize an infection and neutralize it before it causes damage to other systems in the body.

HIV, on the other hand, directly attacks the immune system itself (particularly the long-lasting T cell response). So even if the immune system recognizes it, if the virus's main target is that immune system, a vaccine won't do any good.