HIV Vaccine One Shot For Life } Applied for Patent
In addition to a cure for HIV, a top priority of AIDS researchers is a vaccine that can prevent infection in the first place.
Researchers at the Texas Biomedical Research Instituterecently applied for a patent for a single-dose vaccine they hope will last a lifetime and help control the HIV epidemic by stopping transmission of the virus during sex.
About 90 percent of HIV infections occur during sexual intercourse when the virus passes through the epithelial cells that line the surfaces of the body.
The genetically engineered vaccine targets stem cells in what are known as the mucosal layers of the epithelium, just below the surface of the skin.
These cells are injected with attenuated, or dead, pieces of the HIV, triggering an immune response. As the stem cells differentiate into other types of skin cells, they retain the HIV antigen, which will stimulate the body's immune response. Eventually, it's hoped, this will create an impermeable barrier of cells through which the virus can't pass.
{The Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio is seeking a patent for an HIV vaccine that will last a lifetime. “The development of an effective AIDS vaccine that restricts viral replication at the mucosal level of entry may be our best hope for controlling the HIV pandemic,†Dr. Marie-Claire Gauduin of Texas Biomed's Department of Virology and Immunology},“One problem with treating HIV once it's in the body is that it keeps mutating,” said Marie-Claire Gauduin, a researcher in the institute's department of virology and immunology who, along with Philippe Blancou of the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis in France, invented the vaccine. “The skin is the body's first line of defense and, if we can prevent the virus from entering the body through the skin, we can stop it before it has a chance to mutate.”
The vaccine would not protect against HIV transmission from a tainted blood transfusion, sharing needles or other avenues in which the virus bypasses the epithelium.
Gauduin said, as far as she can tell, this is the first time epithelial stem cells have been recruited in an effort to develop an HIV vaccine.
The concept behind the vaccine already has been proven in lab studies. In January, researchers will begin working with rhesus monkeys at the institute, inoculating them with various dosages of the vaccine at one of four sites — the vagina, rectum, mouth or skin — monitoring their immune response and then infecting them with different HIV strains to test their ability to protect against infection.
“By about 2015 we should know if the works, or if it was just a great dream,” she said.
Gauduin said the institute's patent application is intended to prevent other, larger research groups from claiming the idea.
“As we move into animal studies, we want to protect ourselves, the lab and the work we've done,” she said.
She already has presented her study results at a scientific conference, and she is writing a peer-reviewed paper she hopes will be published within the next few months.
She said this is not the first time a patent application has been filed for an experimental HIV vaccine.
Dr. Delia Bullock learned about the vaccine only Tuesday, but she said the theory behind it sounded “brilliant.”
“It's exactly what we needs, since most infections are transmitted vaginally or anally,” said Bullock, a clinician at the University Health System's Family-Focused AIDS Clinical Treatment and Services clinic. “We need to bring down the rate of infection in all kinds of ways. Abstinence, condoms and treatment all play a part, but a vaccine is absolutely needed, too.”
Gauduin hypothesizes that, if the vaccine proves effective, teenagers could be immunized before they hit puberty.
“Then they would have a layer of protection for the rest of their lives,” she said.
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