Recent news
August 2011
Scientists expand scope of HIV vaccine research
August 16, 2011 -- The world’s largest ongoing HIV vaccine study has been expanded to consider multiple ways a vaccine might boost immune response to the virus. Called HVTN 505, the study and has been underway since June 2009. HVTN stands for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, which is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health. “The trial is being expanded both in terms of the number of participants, as well as what the trial is looking to answer,” said Mitchell Warren, head of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and member of the Global Health Technologies Coalition.
Trial enrollment is increasing from 1,350 to 2,200 participants. Previously, the study’s main goal was to determine whether the vaccine regimen decreases the amount of virus in the blood of vaccine recipients who later become infected with HIV, and preventing HIV acquisition was one of the study’s secondary goals. However, promising data from other recent studies suggest that this vaccine regimen might be more protective than originally anticipated. These recent studies include the 2009 results of the RV-144 vaccine trial in Thailand, which showed that a preventive HIV vaccine is possible. Warren said, “Because of the Thai trial, what we saw in that vaccine actually preventing infection was, wow, we really need to then look differently at HVTN 505 and expand its ability to look at the question: could this vaccine actually also prevent infection, prevent acquisition of HIV?” See the links below for more details.
