Spring Break
Vaccine efforts progress despite critics
Shyunti Das
Issue date: 12/3/04 Section: Sci-Tech
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Since the 1980s, when AIDS first came to the forefront of public health consciousness, a vaccine has been considered the best solution for reigning in the disease. However, because HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS, attacks immune cells within the body, the task is a difficult one. Usually vaccines activate immune cells to mobilize against the invading virus; these are the very cells that fall victim to HIV.
Today, due to the amount of research done in the area of HIV/AIDS, it is known that there are individuals whose immune systems successfully defend against the virus and remain impervious to the usual symptoms. Many others can hold the deleterious effects at bay for years. This research has allowed the development of protein and gene agents which are able to circumvent the usual obstacles that defense cells face from HIV.
Government organizations, such as the CDC and the NIH, along with private companies, such as Vaxgen and Aventis, are currently conducting clinical trials of such vaccines. Clinical trials for vaccines are comprised of three phases. Phase I tests 10-30 people not at risk for the disease to determine the reaction the vaccine produces. Phase II involves 50-500 people, both those low and high risk, to establish the amount of regularity of drug to be given. Phase III tests individuals with the disease, with both vaccine and placebo, to determine the overall effectiveness of the drug.
The first human vaccine trial was in conducted in the U.S. in 1987. Since then, many trials have occurred, most in the U.S. and Europe, with some in China, Haiti, Brazil, Thailand, Uganda and other developing nationals. Two full-scale trials, in the U.S. and Thailand, have been held. The results of the U.S. trial, released in March 2003, yielded mixed results, with certain groups of people demonstrating marked improvement, and the majority of the population not showing a significant decrease in HIV infection.
The evidence from this study has prompted many researchers in the field to say that a vaccine is not a realistic goal in the fight against AIDS. They cite the great genetic variability of HIV as a deterrent to being able to develop a generic drug that can be used on a wide scale, and question whether the effects of a vaccine are beneficial enough to considered more desirable than the body's natural response. Many feel that the funding being used for the development of vaccines could be channeled to the funding of alternative treatment therapies currently under study.
Today, due to the amount of research done in the area of HIV/AIDS, it is known that there are individuals whose immune systems successfully defend against the virus and remain impervious to the usual symptoms. Many others can hold the deleterious effects at bay for years. This research has allowed the development of protein and gene agents which are able to circumvent the usual obstacles that defense cells face from HIV.
Government organizations, such as the CDC and the NIH, along with private companies, such as Vaxgen and Aventis, are currently conducting clinical trials of such vaccines. Clinical trials for vaccines are comprised of three phases. Phase I tests 10-30 people not at risk for the disease to determine the reaction the vaccine produces. Phase II involves 50-500 people, both those low and high risk, to establish the amount of regularity of drug to be given. Phase III tests individuals with the disease, with both vaccine and placebo, to determine the overall effectiveness of the drug.
The first human vaccine trial was in conducted in the U.S. in 1987. Since then, many trials have occurred, most in the U.S. and Europe, with some in China, Haiti, Brazil, Thailand, Uganda and other developing nationals. Two full-scale trials, in the U.S. and Thailand, have been held. The results of the U.S. trial, released in March 2003, yielded mixed results, with certain groups of people demonstrating marked improvement, and the majority of the population not showing a significant decrease in HIV infection.
The evidence from this study has prompted many researchers in the field to say that a vaccine is not a realistic goal in the fight against AIDS. They cite the great genetic variability of HIV as a deterrent to being able to develop a generic drug that can be used on a wide scale, and question whether the effects of a vaccine are beneficial enough to considered more desirable than the body's natural response. Many feel that the funding being used for the development of vaccines could be channeled to the funding of alternative treatment therapies currently under study.
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