Oxford's AIDS vaccine hope
VACCINATION AGAINST HIV could be closer than expected following successful laboratory tests by an Oxford-based company.
Powerject, based in Oxford Science Park, has announced results from two studies showing significant advances in the development of a DNA vaccine to combat HIV. The innovation comes in the unique, needle-free system used by the company, with an injection that uses helium gas to propel powder through the skin.
Achieving this robust cellular response with a Powderject DNA vaccine is extremely encouraging, said Dr Lendon Payne, Vice President of Research at Powderject Vaccines. Potent cellular responses have been observed in HIV-infected individuals who show natural resistance to the virus. These individuals have low viral loads and do not develop AIDS as expected." He added: "Scientists believe this type of immune response will be an essential component of an HIV vaccine."
Such a medical advance could offer hope to millions of HIV sufferers. A spokesperson for the Terrence Higgins Trust said he welcomed any development which makes medication easier to take. However, there is still no cure and no vaccine for HIV and there is unlikely to be one within the next few years."
The powder injection is important because it offers effective protection against infection transmitted by two different routes: sexual contact and needles. Although the vaccine is unable to prevent infection, it may delay the onset of AIDS and reduce the risk of heterosexual HIV infection.
One of the main problems in the creation of a vaccine against HIV is that the virus continually evolves, creating new variants that are able to evade the immune responses. Designing an effective vaccine to protect people from HIV has proved difficult," said Mr Schaefer Price, President of Powderject Vaccines. "An effective vaccine will need to generate immune responses that combat the virus at different sites of entry. He added, "These exciting results show that Powderject DNA vaccination offers the qualities demanded of an effective vaccine for HIV."
Whilst acknowledging that a vaccine would not appear for some time, Mr Price was enthusiastic about the next step in the process: "These studies are extremely encouraging and while a DNA vaccine for HIV remains several years away, they form a sound foundation for HIV DNA vaccine clinical trials."
Despite advances in the fight against HIV and AIDS, some prejudices still run deeply. Two British researchers earlier this week were caught up in one of the most bitter scientific controversies relating to AIDS in recent years.
Virologist Gordon Stewart, of Glasgow University, and pharmacologist Andrew Herxheimer, from Oxford, joined an advisory board set up by Thabo Mbeki, the South African President.
The panel has provoked widespread scientific and political fury because more than 50% of the 33 members are regarded as medical heretics. Almost all experts agree that AIDS is caused by HIV and not poverty, malnutrition or poor sanitation, as dissidents claim.
Stewart, an emeritus professor at Glasgow University has openly supported this notion of AIDS, claiming that a conspiracy is preventing such views being made public. Colleagues and I attempting to publish have met an unholy alliance intention rejecting any papers that offer serious criticisms of the orthodoxy," he said. "The mainstream journals and media - whenever they are presented with reasonable doubts about AIDS close ranks like regimented clams.
The involvement of these dissidents in developing AIDS policy, in a country where 10% of its population are HIV-positive and where rates are expected to rise to more than 25% has concerned politicians and scientists around the world. "The views of such people have been largely discredited by the scientific community, and there is very little doubt about the overwhelming body of scientific evidence," said a Terrence Higgins Trust Spokesperson.
The story of Andrew Herxheimer however, is very different. Based at the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford, which is part of the NHS Research and Development Programme, Herxheimer believes that radical changes should be made to pharmaceutical licensing regulations. This would make them cheaper to manufacture in the Third World. He has been noticed by Mbeki and his advisors following his criticism of Glaxo Wellcome, the manufacturer of the anti-AIDS drug AZT, for not releasing data from trials with the drug.
The cost of the drug, known to help block the transmission of HIV from infected mothers to their children, has horrified Mbeki. He and his advisors have repeatedly rejected requests for it to be given to pregnant women, a worrying problem in South Africa. It is thought that by denying any link between HIV and AIDS, Mbeki can avoid taking the necessary, although extremely expensive, action.
It is thought that the influence of scientists such as Herxheimer and other 'orthodox' panel members such as the French scientist and co-discoverer of HIV, Luc Montagnier, will turn Mbeki from his current AIDS policy and save thousands of lives in the process.
More at: www.unaids.org
4th May 2000