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HIV Vaccine Trial Shows 90% Immune Response

fergus07 writes "Researchers at the Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) have successfully completed Phase I human clinical trials of a HIV vaccine in which 90% of volunteers developed an immunological response against the virus. The MVA-B vaccine draws on the natural capabilities of the human immune system and 'has proven to be as powerful as any other vaccine currently being studied, or even more,' says Mariano Esteban, head researcher from CSIC's National Biotech Centre."

47 of 386 comments (clear)

  1. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by BradleyUffner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Healthy relationships would kill HIV 100%, not 90.

    Meanwhile, back in reality....

  2. Re:Great by AmazinglySmooth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Abstinence, combined with existing anti-retroviral therapies might actually extinguish HIV from the face of the earth in only a few decades, if used widely.

  3. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by cachimaster · · Score: 2

    That's not the way vaccines work. If the prostitute is also vaccinated (very likely) probabilities compound and you have 90%*90% = 99% chance that prostitute won't kill you.

  4. Re:Great by magsol · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Good luck with abstinence being "used widely".

    --
    "I'd just like to emphasise that taking a million years isn't a metaphor here..." -Rich Bradshaw
  5. Re:Great by sulimma · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Abstinence will actually extinguish the whole human race from the face of the earth in only a few decades, if used widely.

  6. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by cpotoso · · Score: 2

    I wish I had modpoints to mod you up. Indeed, fantasyland is just that...

  7. Re:Great by Riceballsan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Abstinance alone, on a global scale in roughly one century can whipe out aids, cancer and every other disease from the human race, even solve world hunger and the economy.

  8. Re:Great by medv4380 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'd be learly of this until Phase II and Phase III are completed. Developing an Immune response is different then having a successful vaccine. The antibodies have to be ones that will help in eradicating the infection, and since HIV mutates so rapidly there is no grantee that it will work long term in world wide eradication.

  9. Re:Great by DriedClexler · · Score: 2

    Can I be the one who injects people with HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) to test out their immune response?

    --
    Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.
  10. awesome by rish87 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can finally go back to sharing needles. I gotta save money, what with the economy in the gutter.

  11. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by nomel · · Score: 2

    So, you're saying you can have sex with 100 vaccinated prostitutes and only get HIV once...

  12. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by Dahamma · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And don't ever get sick enough to need a blood transfusion.

    Oh, and don't ever work in the health industry or volunteer anywhere that you could accidentally come in contact with infected blood.

    Are you trolling or just that naive?

  13. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by HateBreeder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because HIV infected individuals have a large glowing neon sign attached to their foreheads saying "I HAVE HIV!"

    --
    Sigs are for the weak.
  14. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by flaming+error · · Score: 2

    It is not "100% effective" because sexual intercourse is not the only transmission vector.

    It is unrealistic because we have a very strong instinct to reproduce, and that generally involves at least one other person/orangutan whose HIV status we don't really *know* except perhaps a short period immediately after they are tested.

  15. first post-HIV-cure realization by Tumbleweed · · Score: 2

    Oh yeah, they never did cure Herpes, did they? :(

    1. Re:first post-HIV-cure realization by vlm · · Score: 2

      Oh yeah, they never did cure Herpes, did they? :(

      Too profitable.

      Imagine the crushing damage to the medical industry if they ever cured the common cold?

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    2. Re:first post-HIV-cure realization by Belial6 · · Score: 2

      Which makes me suspicious. The can make a vaccine for the variant of Herpes (Chicken Pox) that has one outbreak, and that is the end of it, but they can't make a vaccine for the variant that has reoccurring outbreaks for the the persons entire life. For that variant, they can only come up with on going treatment to suppress the symptoms.

    3. Re:first post-HIV-cure realization by medv4380 · · Score: 2

      Naive, herpes hides in nerve cells between breakouts. I'm sure if you trained the immune system to hunt it down in those cells their would be other consequences. Your immune system deals with it just fine when it finds it, but killing nerve cells is usually bad. This is also why the 1st outbreak is usually the worst with Herpes since once you're body know what it is it can kill it before it causes too much damage, but depending on the version it still causes damage.

    4. Re:first post-HIV-cure realization by afidel · · Score: 2

      Actually the Herpes virus (varicella zoster) that causes chicken pox does have recurrence in many people, it's what causes shingles. For those people all they can do is help the symptoms as well (though the chicken pox vaccine will now eliminates symptoms for some significant percentage of those so affected). Now that the Valtrex patent has expired (2008) I'm sure there's some incentive to create a vaccine (though getting it used in the general population is going to be difficult, see all the ignorant uproar over the HPV vaccine).

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    5. Re:first post-HIV-cure realization by Capt.DrumkenBum · · Score: 2

      Poor Africans can not afford HIV suppression drugs.

      --
      If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
    6. Re:first post-HIV-cure realization by Tumbleweed · · Score: 2

      Yes, silly of them putting the money into finding a cure for a disease that kills people instead of one that makes people's crotch itch.

      Your righteous indignation would be more impressive if it had anything to do with what I said. I never said nor did I imply anything of the sort. Outside of your head, that is.

  16. Re:Great by hedwards · · Score: 2

    IV drug use is something that people can avoid. And it's pretty unusual for folks that aren't working as EMTs, military personnel or similar to come into contact with random blood. And in the case of the military, having HIV is automatic grounds for not being allowed to enlist. I would assume that it's grounds for discharge.

    As for reproduction, it's not an issue, you only need to have sex with one person for that to happen. And ultimately, if everybody did have sex with precisely one partner or had the appropriate testing done, you wouldn't see HIV routinely being spread via sex.

    You might still have some cases popping up, but a virus needs a certain number of new infections to keep from being quarantined or otherwise die out.

  17. Science 1000000001, god 0 by hyades1 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Looks like the big, homophobic Guy in the Sky takes another one in the 'nads from our friends in the medical research community.

    I wonder what Pat Robinson's got to say about this. He's been remarkably quiet since all those tornadoes ripped through the Bible Belt, sucking up true believers like a vaccuum cleaner on meth.

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    1. Re:Science 1000000001, god 0 by anagama · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not just homophobic, crustaceaphobic as well.

      --
      What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
    2. Re:Science 1000000001, god 0 by kevinNCSU · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wow, you're giddy about fellow human beings dying because they have different culture and beliefs than you. Is this really the "enlightened" and "evolved" alternative to religion you wish to present?

    3. Re:Science 1000000001, god 0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or, how about it's a parody of supposedly loving Christians who take joy in the fact people died in tsunamis, and wished it on the people of Dover Pennsylvania; or loving Christians who has no second thought about sending death threats.

  18. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by S.O.B. · · Score: 2

    I don't understand why the concept is so difficult. There is a 100% effective way to prevent catching HIV. Don't have sex with someone who has it! Why is that so unrealistic?

    Perhaps it's unrealistic because it's not true. For example,

    Contaminated haemophilia blood products
    Blood transfusions
    Transmission from mother to child
    Needlestick injuries to health workers

    It's also theoretically possible to get it from tattoos and piercings although no known cases have been documented.

    --
    Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
  19. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by ewieling · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Having only "safer sex", sex with only one partner, and abstinence goes against our nature. Our entire biology is geared to reproducing and spreading our genes as widely as possible. You will never get 100% of people to have protected sex 100% of the time. You will never get 100% of people in monogamous relationships to not cheat. The best we can do is get the largest percentage of people we can to do things which reduce their chances of contracting HIV. Rather than live in the fantasy world where nobody makes bad decisions, why not live the real world? I don't understand why the concept is so difficult.

    --
    I really shouldn't have used someone else's email address for this account.
  20. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by Anon-Admin · · Score: 2

    I think your percentage is off. 30%+ are Heterosexual contact. You are assuming that all of that is from unhealthy relationships where in reality an unknown percentage is contact within a healthy relationship.

    Remember, in a normal and healthy relationship men and women will cheat 52% and 66% respectively.

  21. Re:How do they test?? by tungstencoil · · Score: 3, Informative
    Historically take a sample set of people considered to be at-risk for HIV, give them safer-sex counseling, and then track them against a control for infection rates. This study was different (hate to say RTFA, but it does describe it):

    Development of MVA-B is based on the insertion of four HIV genes in a previously used vaccine (MVA) for smallpox. When injected with the vaccine, a healthy immune system can react against the MVA, whilst the HIV genes are incapable of self-replicating. This guarantees a safe clinical trial for HIV free volunteers. Furthermore by trialing the vaccine on healthy patients, the immune system can learn how to detect and combat the HIV virus components. "It is like showing a picture of the HIV so that it is able to recognize it if it sees it again in the future", says Esteban.

  22. Re:Great by somersault · · Score: 5, Funny

    It'll work fine if people teach it to their kids, grandkids, great grandkids and so on.

    --
    which is totally what she said
  23. Re:How do they test?? by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 2

    Yes. Oh and your mom will be home a little late tonight...

    --
    People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
  24. Immunological response? by Guppy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    HIV vaccine in which 90% of volunteers developed an immunological response against the virus.

    This is an absolutely meaningless measure; seroconversion against HIV is easy to achieve, and typically worthless. The elicited antibodies end up being targeted to highly variable regions, and have little long-term neutralizing power.

    Although a handful of unusual broadly neutralizing antibodies have been found among "elite controllers", it is extremely rare for typical individuals to generate them. There's been some speculation it might be possible to create an effective vaccine by directing the response away from decoy regions, and towards the handful of areas targeted by such elite antibodies. Thus far, nobody has managed such a feat, unfortunately.

  25. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by jdpars · · Score: 2

    I think this may have been a reference to the now-infamous "your an idiot" response. Not sure though. 50% possibility it's an actual idiot, 50% possibility of a reference.

  26. Re:Free love baby! Groovy! by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 2

    I'm sure there will be some affect on behavior.

    What I believe will *really* launch the next sexual bonanza is a simple 5 minute 'blood test on a chip' for the various STDs. Don't have to cure it, just know if the person you're going to humpty-hump with is likely clean.

    And that really can't be that far off in the future me thinks. Testing for the existence of a disease is infinitely simpler than curing it.

    --
    People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
  27. Re:10% by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was curious about this, so i did some reading on other vaccine trials.
    turns out, they are not looking for you to not/get the disease, they are looking for you to develop successful antibodies. (which they can test by taking a blood sample, and infecting it and watching under a microscope).
    Additionally, 90% seems to be the benchmark for a useable vaccine. For example, the final tests for some of the Polio vaccines resulted in 90%ish of the test subjects developing antibodies. After that, its basically a war of attrition on the disease.
    If 90% of a population becomes immune, the chances of the disease spreading within it diminishes accordingly. Eventually, all live carriers die of old age or the disease, and no new carriers are produced, thus eliminating the disease from the population. Heck, even a 55 % successful vaccine could do this, it would just take longer.

    --
    I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
  28. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by jimbolauski · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the US there has been one known HIV transmission through blood transfusion in the last 8 years the chances of getting HIV from a blood transfusion are 1 in 1,500,000. 1 in 400 people who get stuck with a needle or cut with a sharp from a person with HIV contract the virus there have been 57 cases of health care workers getting HIV at work there are 12,000,000 health care workers. Getting HIV is not that easy mostly bad decisions have to be made to get HIV. The chances that you get HIV from a source besides sex and sharing needles is too small to consider 0.000002% you have a better chance of dieing from constipation.

    --
    Knowledge = Power
    P= W/t
    t=Money
    Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
  29. I think people forget this by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Vaccines against viruses work because they train the immune system to attack the virus. They introduce something that gets it going. Can be a dead virus, can be a live but weakened virus, but whatever the case it trips off the immune system which produces a tailor made response. The immune system can then use that to kill any future invasions from that virus.

    This is the same thing that happens when someone gets sick. However in that case, the live (in so far as a virus is alive) and fully active so it overwhelms the body for awhile until the body can formulate the response and fight back. All the vaccine does is make that process easier and safer.

    The flip side of that is if it is the sort of thing the immune system fights off, but then it comes back, well a vaccine won't work, at least not a vaccine in the classical sense. If the immune system can't develop an effective repeating method to kill the virus, then a vaccine won't help.

    Really this shit is not a big medical conspiracy, it is just how things work. What's more, the more things we cure, the harder the things are that remain. We fixed the things that were easy to fix long ago. We are getting to the hard shit now.

  30. Re:Great by MysteriousPreacher · · Score: 2

    He's not lying. Sex with his wife is great!

    --
    -- Using the preview button since 2005
  31. Re:Interesting HIV transmission rate stats by geekoid · · Score: 2

    It's 1/500, and the more it's studied the worse it gets. well, it's not getting worse, the number is just getting more accurate.

    As an example, in 1988, they where saying 1 in 5 billion chance if you used a condom

    http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/22/us/researchers-list-odds-of-getting-aids-in-heterosexual-intercourse.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

    while other STDs have anywhere from a 10% to 50% transmission rate, AIDS is still a sexual transmitted disease.
    "You probably have to have an open wound, scratch, or open sore from another STD to transmit the virus."
    Also, and even if it was true, sexual transmitted would be the correct term.

    while 1/500 doesn't sound bad, bear in mind tit's 1/500 for one(1) encounter. Most sexual active people have more then one encounter. When I was sexual active, I would have 5-15 partners a month.

    That was in the late 70's to about '84. In '84 I found out about AIDS and pretty much stopped being sexual active with anyone I hadn't dated and got to know. Seriously, STD went from 'It may be painful to cure you..but probably not' to 'You will die'.
    Because it's important to this conversation, they where heterosexual encounters.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  32. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by duguk · · Score: 2, Funny

    In the US there has been one known HIV transmission through blood transfusion in the last 8 years the chances of getting HIV from a blood transfusion are 1 in 1,500,000. 1 in 400 people who get stuck with a needle or cut with a sharp from a person with HIV contract the virus there have been 57 cases of health care workers getting HIV at work there are 12,000,000 health care workers. Getting HIV is not that easy mostly bad decisions have to be made to get HIV. The chances that you get HIV from a source besides sex and sharing needles is too small to consider 0.000002% you have a better chance of dieing from constipation.

    So, still not 100% then?

  33. Re:Interesting HIV transmission rate stats by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 2

    Thanks for that correction. "Per encounter" really does change the nature of the risk.

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  34. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by Dahamma · · Score: 2, Informative

    What the hell does any of this have to do with the US? The vaccine from the original article wasn't even developed in the US. HIV isn't an epidemic "in the US", but that doesn't mean it's not worth pursuing a vaccine.

    If you want to quote statistics - in Africa the estimate is 250-500 people a DAY contract HIV from unsafe (either contaminated blood or equipment) transfusions. Some 3rd world countries in Asia are almost as bad. And since there is such a higher rate of HIV and such poor health care conditions, it's much more dangerous for the health care workers as well.

    But I guess same pseudo-moralistic bullshit attitude that would pretend to argue HIV is not a world epidemic and is only contracted by all of those fornicators and addicts probably doesn't give a shit about anyone outside of their tiny little world, anyway.

  35. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by werepants · · Score: 2

    What he's trying to say is 10% chance of getting HIV * 10% chance of hooker having HIV = 1% chance of getting it, or 99% chance of not getting it.

  36. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by drsmithy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hmmm, so tell me, how do I control with 100% certainty that my wife never strays and never gets infected?

    Make sure her leash doesn't reach to the doorway and install a good security system, of course.

  37. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by manwargi · · Score: 2

    I know! How come these people don't use their powers of omniscience to avoid all the infected people they meet?? And those nurses assigned to HIV patients are such dirty whoring sluts, too.

  38. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by tragedy · · Score: 2

    Synerg1y wrote:

    Healthy relationships would kill HIV 100%, not 90.

    Clearly you've never heard of rape. While it doesn't fall under the category of healthy relationships, it can still affect people who would otherwise only engage in healthy relationships. For that matter, a person might believe themselves to be in a healthy relationship and be deceived. The arrogant presumption implicit in your post that HIV only strikes moral degenerates is quite incorrect.