During a preliminary test carried out in a small group of volunteers, a formula targeting key cells of immunity was well tolerated while inducing an early and notable immune response.
By Florence Rosier
An innovative approach to HIV vaccine, this is “excellent news,” said Professor Gilles Pialoux, head of infectious and tropical disease at Tenon hospital in Paris. In fact, a new strategy has just shown its ability to induce an early, important and lasting immune response “against the AIDS virus while being well tolerated, according to the French team behind this vaccination preparation. It is, at this stage, a preliminary test, known as “phase 1”. He was led on 36 healthy people by the team of teachers Jean-Daniel Lelièvre and Yves Lévy, of the Vaccine Research Institute at Henri-Mondor Hospital (AP-HP, Créteil), with the support of the Anrs , Inserm and the Eurovacc Foundation, in Lausanne.
Its results were presented on February 21 at the International Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (Croi), which was held in Seattle (United States). It remains, of course, to prove its effectiveness in terms of protection against infections during a large -scale test, called “phase 3”.
Since the HIV epidemic melted on the world, in the early 1980s, the fight against this scourge stuck on a tenacious obstacle: the development of an effective vaccine. Among the pitfalls, there is the fact that the HIV targets the immune system directly, even though the effectiveness of a vaccine is based on this system. “HIV is very quickly integrated into the human cells it infects, causing immunosuppression from primo-infection,” said Gilles Pialoux. Hence the importance of gaining speed. “To be effective, a vaccine will have to block the entrance to the virus in the mucous membranes, its main way of penetration into the body,” said the infectiologist.
The theoretical interest of this new Vaccin candidate lies in the fact that he targets “key cells of the immune response, dendritic cells, which play an essential role in the education and activation of the system immune “, specifies Jean-Daniel Lelièvre. “It is a paradigm shift”, greets Gilles Pialoux.
A protein of the HIV envelope
This candidate-Vaccin therefore uses “a vector that targets these cells”, explains Yves Lévy: an anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody, which is specifically linked to a surface receiver (CD40 protein) of dendritic cells. This antibody is merged with the active principle of the vaccine: a protein of the envelope of HIV.
You have 54.66% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.