A Pox on HIV

A vaccine against the scourge of HIV—causative agent of AIDS and killer of 3 million victims per year—would be a tremendous medical advance, but the challenges remain daunting. As part of a large international consortium funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Biodesign is developing a trial vaccine using an attenuated variant of poxvirus.

Known as vaccinia, the virus acts as a “cargo ship” to introduce HIV protein antigens capable of producing a protective immune response in the vaccine recipient. As the body’s immune system reacts to the presence of vaccinia, it will also be mounting a defense to the HIV protein payload entering the body.
 
Vaccinia is an ancestral pox strain closely related to the cowpox virus Edward Jenner used in 1796 to carry out the first vaccination against smallpox. Vaccinia-based vaccine was later used by the World Health Organization in a massive inoculation effort, successfully eradicating the deadly disease by 1977.

Depending on results of current research in mice, the team hopes to have an HIV vaccine in human clinical trials within three years.  ASU has several patents on vaccinia virus vector technology. These have been developed by Professor Bertram Jacobs, director of this project and one of the world’s leading authorities on vaccinia. Jacobs has been investigating the workings of this virus for over 20 years.

Current evidence indicates that poxvirus vector vaccines may be modified in order to significantly improve their ability to stimulate cellular immune responses, offering hope that HIV may one day be defeated.

Funded with support from: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation