AIDS vaccine researchers say they have some new clues to help focus their search for a safe and effective vaccine against HIV.
At the AIDS Vaccine conference in Bangkok on Tuesday, scientists announced an update to a Thai trial of a "modestly effective
AIDS vaccine researchers say they have some new clues to help focus their search for a safe and effective vaccine against HIV.
At the AIDS Vaccine conference in Bangkok on Tuesday, scientists announced an update to a Thai trial of a "modestly effective" experimental AIDS vaccine.
At the end of the initial 3½-year study, the vaccine prevented infection in about 30 per cent of the 16,000 Thai volunteers who received it compared with a placebo.
The new findings shed light on how the vaccine worked by identifying how the immune system responded to it.
Scientists have also discovered a part of HIV that may be vulnerable to a vaccine, which means scientists now have some idea of how the vaccine worked, and how to do more focused research.
"It might be possible in the future to do vaccine trials with many fewer people much more rapidly so we could see progress occurring a lot more rapidly," said U.S. army Col. Jerome Kim, one of the leaders of the Thai trial.
Stephen Kent, a vaccine researcher at the University of Melbourne, described the antibodies produced by the vaccine as "friends with benefits."
"They don't necessarily prevent infection of cells but it allows them to kill infected cells," said Kent. "So it may be that that really helps protection."
More vaccine trials planned
The findings, along with the development of a test for the antibody res