HWN Suggests

Why inventing a vaccine for AIDS is tougher than for COVID

A big part of the reason, says Warren, is the rate at which the AIDS virus mutates. "The world has tracked the variants of COVID," he says. Those variants include Alpha, Beta, Delta, Omicron and subvariants. But HIV is much more variable. "There are more variants of HIV in one person's body within days after infection than all the variants of COVID." That means that even as a vaccine is being developed to attack HIV, the virus may be mutating out of its reach.

A vaccine's job is to teach the immune system to recognize the disease and create antibodies to fight it off. So far, that hasn't worked with HIV.

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Articles of Interest

An HIV vaccine could arrive sooner than we thought—using Moderna’s mRNA tech

A new vaccine trial in humans shows promising results.

HIV vaccines: The search goes on as the research landscape evolves

As HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has emerged as the standard of care for HIV prevention, clinical trials evaluating new prevention strategies, including vaccines, face unique challenges. The goal of a vaccine to prevent HIV infection remains a top priority, but as difficult as it has been to technically produce, it is now becoming increasingly complex to research its effectiveness and safety in the real world.

Progress toward an eventual HIV vaccine

Vaccines work by inducing the immune system to make antibodies that can neutralize a particular pathogen. But doing so for HIV has been challenging because there are countless variants worldwide, and the immune system doesn’t normally make antibodies that can protect against a wide range of them.

Revolutionary HIV vaccine that ‘trains’ the immune system passes its first hurdle

A completely new kind of vaccine that aims to induce a response to HIV that is ‘better than nature’ has completed its first immunogenicity trial in humans, with promising results. The vaccine, currently dubbed eOD-GT8, is being developed by Professor William Schief and colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute in California...

The four-decade quest for an HIV vaccine yields new hope

While the reality is far more nuanced than recent hype suggests, a breakthrough strategy is finally offering fresh tools for battling this devastating virus.

Why Don't We Have an HIV Vaccine?

Science is still trying to catch up to the world’s most cunning virus.

Resources

HIV Vaccine Trials Network

The HIV Vaccine Trials Network is an international partnership of research scientists, clinical trial sites, laboratories, statisticians, regulators and ethicists, participants, volunteers and community representatives working with industry, academia, and governments in the global search for a preventive HIV vaccine.

Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise

To share knowledge, foster collaboration, enable solutions and expand support critical to the development of – and future access to – an HIV vaccine

The Well Project

Are There HIV Vaccine Studies Going on Now? Yes. HIV-related vaccine clinical trials are being conducted around the world. This website from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a searchable database of publicly and privately funded clinical trials across the globe, including those for HIV vaccines.