AIDS vaccine development

A number of approaches are being assessed with regard to developing an effective AIDS vaccine. No safe attenuated form of the virus has been recognized to date, nor is one likely to be developed in the foreseeable future. The high level of mutation associated with HIV would, in any case, heighten fears that spontaneous reversion of any such product to virulence would be possible. 

The single most important issue in developed countries is the safety of a vaccine, a single death in a million vaccinations for a new vaccine would be unacceptable (except possibly if it were an effective AIDS vaccine). While this is obviously important in a Third World country, other issues such as cost and how to deliver the vaccine are of paramount importance. 

The Project BioShield II Act of 2005, introduced to the U.S. Senate in April 2005, contains a proposal for so-called Transferable Intellectual Property Rights, in which a firm that developed a vaccine for a disease such as AIDS would obtain a wildcard patent extension that could be applied to a drug of its choice in the United States. The proposal has received the endorsement of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which sees any proposal to increase research into AIDS vaccines positively. This is therefore a proposal that deserves serious scrutiny. 

Two major diseases, malaria and AIDS, are still out of control vaccines are not available, while the malaria parasite and the HIV virus, responsible for AIDS, have developed resistance to current dmgs. Variability of the agent, lack of commercial interest, and perhaps also unconfessed political plans at population growth control, have been an obstacle to active immunization against malaria. The hope for an HIV vaccine is now from the engagement of Merck Co (Conference 2001). 

Table 8.3 Some AIDS Vaccines Under Development...

Goldenthal KL, Cavagnaro JA, Alving CR, Vogel FR. Safety evaluation of vaccine adjuvants. National Cooperative Vaccine Development Working Group. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses 1993 9 S45-S49. 

Impediments, Imponderables and Alternatives in the Attempt to Develop an Effective Vaccine Against AIDS Vaccine 10 1053-1058, 1992... 

The development of an effective AIDS vaccine is difficult owing to the antigenic diversity of HIV strains. Because... 

The failure of (he first generation of AIDS vaecines la to a reexamination of the whole AIDS vaccine effort. Ai. guide forresearch efforts, a number of criteria foran "idd AIDS vaccine have been developed. The "ideal" AIDSvx-cine should (a) be safe, (b) elicit a protective immune n sponse in a high proportion of vaccinated individuals, lei stimulate both cellular and humoral branches of (he immim ... 

HIV is the retrovirus that causes AIDS. The development of anti-HIV microbicides for either topical or ex vivo use is of considerable interest, mainly due to the difficulties in creating a vaccine that would be active against multiple clades of HIV. In this chapter we discuss the anti-HIV activity of extracts and compounds isolated from marine sources. Most reports recorded in the literature on anti-HIV activity in the marine environment include marine macro and microalgae and sponges. 

The development of an effective AIDS vaccine is difficult owing to the antigenic diversity of HIV strains. Because its mechanism for replication is quite error prone, a population of HI V presents an ever-changing array of coat proteins. Indeed, the mutation rate of HIV is more than 65 times higher than that of influenza virus. A few broadly neutralizing antibodies have been isolated from asymptomatic, HIV infected persons. Several of these antibodies show an unusual form, described in Section 33.3, that allows them to bind many types of HIV. 

The AIDS outbreak has been and continues to be a tragedy on a massive scale. Until a cure is discovered, or a vaccine developed, sustained efforts at preventing its transmission offer our best weapon against the spread of AIDS. 

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