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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- For many, hopes for an HIV vaccine are all but dashed -- but experts say more research may lead to a breakthrough.
Officials from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) say some of the obstacles standing in the way of a vaccine to protect against HIV are the destruction of T-cells, cells that reduce the levels of HIV virus and the evasive techniques of the HIV virus. In addition, HIV enters the latency stage much more quickly than other viruses -- and once the virus is latent, it is invisible to the immune system.
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Recent efforts to develop T-cell vaccines have failed in human trials, and in response, scientists are re-evaluating their strategies. Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of NIAID, and Margaret I. Johnston, Ph.D., director of the Vaccine Research Program in NIAID's Division of AIDS, believe the development of an HIV vaccine needs to be approached in a way different from other vaccines. They say researchers need to gain a more thorough understanding of the disease itself and think outside of the box.
"We remain cautiously optimistic that a substantial increase in our understanding of HIV infection and disease will lead to creative ideas about how to design an effective HIV vaccine," the authors wrote.
Experts say studying the early stages of HIV infection may lead widening the window of opportunity for killing the HIV virus or prevent the virus from entering certain tissues.
For every infected person who began receiving antiretroviral therapy in 2007, 2.5 people were newly infected with HIV.
SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, 2008;359:888-890
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