Even with countless attempts, no HIV vaccine has yet been considered safe and effective. But hope still exists and is strengthened by the findings of scientists at Duke University in the United States. They claim that a new immunogen produced antibodies and defenses against HIV in the first phase of clinical testing.

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The body's response to the presence of antigens

• This indicates, according to the researchers, that the vaccine in question has the ability to activate the human immune system against the disease.
• During the tests, a group of 24 people received the vaccine.
• After two of the four planned doses, broadly neutralizing antibodies against the infection could be observed.
• According to the study published in the magazine cellWith two doses of the vaccine, 95% of the volunteers showed the body's response to the presence of antigens in the blood serum.
• Furthermore, the presence of a specific type of lymphocytes (white blood cells), known as CD4+ T cells, was identified in all patients.

Side effects of the HIV vaccine are a problem

Despite the promising news, there is still a long way to go before the vaccine is actually available to the population. Scientists say, for example, that it is not yet known whether vaccines can effectively prevent infection in the real world, which will only be discovered in the next stages of research.

Another challenge is the side effects of the vaccine. The vaccine was reformulated and testing was halted after a serious allergic reaction was identified potentially linked to one of the compounds in the formula.

Since the incident, scientists have been working to develop a new version of the vaccine. In parallel, they are looking for ways to stimulate immune responses against other parts of the virus. This is because the vaccine in question was created to stimulate the generation of defensive cells against a specific part of HIV, MPER, which is located in the outer membrane and is little susceptible to mutations.

There is no estimate for when all this work will be completed. There is also no guarantee that all the mentioned hurdles will be overcome, but tests so far have raised expectations that the first vaccine against the disease may finally be created.