In the study, healthy volunteers were given an antigen that elicits an immune response that targets many different variants of the HI virus. The desired immune response was seen in 97 percent of the people – according to the scientists, this indicates that the vaccination has a high probability of protecting once morest infection with the HI virus. However, further studies are needed to determine how effective it really is in practice.
Broad neutralizing antibodies are antibodies that protect once morest many different variants of a virus. Therefore, scientists are trying to develop a vaccine that triggers the formation of these antibodies. The experiments have now been successful for the first time. Study co-author William Schief says: “We specified in advance certain molecular properties of the antibodies we wanted to elicit. The results of this study demonstrate that our vaccine antigen consistently induces precisely these types of antibodies.”
The HI virus does not make it easy for researchers to develop a vaccine. It has several tricks up its sleeve to evade the body’s immune response. This vaccine might at least counteract the high genetic diversity and the rapid mutation of the viruses.
At the end of 2020, around 37.7 million people were living with HIV worldwide. But only 28.2 million of them had access to life-saving medicines. Because even if HIV can be treated well nowadays, the infection is fatal if left untreated. Since the disease cannot be cured and the medication has to be taken for life, there is a great demand for vaccination.
Which: DOI 10.1126/science.add6502
