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Scientists Take Step Forward Toward Developing AIDS Vaccine
March 6, 2000 (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) -- Rabies used to be a killer before medical scientists developed a vaccine against that disease. Today, scientists are using a modified version of the rabies virus in research aimed at developing a vaccine against HIV, according to a study in PNAS Early Edition,a publication produced by the National Academy of Sciences.
Matthias J. Schnell, PhD, and colleagues at the Center for Human Virology at Jefferson Medical Center were able to genetically design a harmless form of the rabies virus and attach a part of the AIDS virus to it. By injecting the rabies virus into mice, the researchers were able to form strong disease-fighting antibodies against HIV. It is safe, according to the experiments in mice. Human tests remain to be done and may be years away.
Paul A. Luciw, PhD, who was not involved in the study, tells WebMD, "Further testing in nonhuman primates is needed. It is an interesting vaccine approach that will require extensive preclinical studies, such as in rhesus monkeys." Luciw is an associate professor at the Center for Comparative Medicine at the University of California, Davis.
Roger J. Pomerantz, MD, co-author of the article, says, "This work represents one of two major steps on the road to human testing and clinical development: First there is research in mice, then research in monkeys. Our research looks great in mice. We have done further research in mice and the results still look good."
Schnell will soon start experiments using monkeys. "If our results turn out to look as good in monkeys as [they do] in mice, the next step will be to test it in humans infected with HIV. It is a process that will take years."
"Their report demonstrates that a genetically modified rabies virus can carry components of HIV into the cells of mice," says Jose G. Montoya, MD, who reviewed the study for WebMD. He says that this vaccine approach is capable of producing neutralizing antibodies that work against those HIV components. "This is a rabies virus, but it is a rabies virus that cannot produce disease in mammals," he tells WebMD.
Even though the researchers have been able to produce these antibodies against HIV, "that is only part of the equation," says Montoya. "What they hope, and what still remains to be demonstrated, is that those antibodies will be able to neutralize other strains of the HIV virus.
"There have been other vaccines developed where researchers have obtained neutralizing antibodies against HIV components, but usually the problem is that the amount they get is too low to be effective in animals or humans," Montoya says. "Even though this is not a totally new finding in HIV vaccine research, it is really hard to accomplish what they have accomplished. It [is] usually difficult to generate neutralizing antibodies, so this is an important step forward.
"There had been a shadow of pessimism hanging over vaccine development," explains Montoya. "Positive results like these bring a light of hope that if we continue to pursue these research avenues ? we will find a vaccine at the end."
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