HIV vaccine candidate induces immune response in early clinical trial: ‘An important step forward’

An experimental HIV vaccine has been found to induce broadly neutralizing antibody precursors among a small group of volunteers in a Phase 1 study. The findings suggest that a two-dose regimen of the vaccine, given eight weeks apart, can elicit immune responses against the human immunodeficiency virus.

The clinical trial results, published Thursday on World AIDS Day in the journal Science, establish “clinical proof of concept” in support of developing boosting regimens to induce immune responses against HIV infection, for which there is no cure and which can cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, known as AIDS.

The vaccine, called eOD-GT8 60mer, had a “favorable safety profile” and induced broadly neutralizing antibody precursors in 97%, or all but one, of the 36 recipients, according to the researchers from Scripps Research, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the National Institutes of Health and other institutions in the United States and Sweden.

Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system to help fight infections, and broadly neutralizing antibodies are known to neutralize many genetic variants of HIV, but they have been difficult to elicit by vaccination.

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