Researchers conducted a randomized double-blind study of the effectiveness of an HIV vaccine and has found it to be ineffective in suppressing the virus. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) drugs allow people infected with the virus to live an almost normal existence.
Injecting patients first with a HIV multi-antigen and a DNA plasmid encoding human interleukin proteins and then following up with a booster containing a viral vector. The idea behind this approach is to nudge the immune system into learning how to combat the virus so that ART drugs are no longer needed.
The research team conducted a study designed to test the effectiveness of the vaccine. The study consisted of enlisting the assistance of early-stage patients with HIV infections who were already being treated with ARTs and assigning them to two groups-some of the patients got the vaccine while others got a placebo. Injections took place at 0, 4, 12, 24, 36 and 48 weeks. ART drug administration was halted for all of the volunteers starting at week 56 and lasting until week 72.
All of the volunteers were tested regularly throughout the study for viral loads, a measure of how well the body, along with ARTs and the vaccine, was working to suppress the virus. The researchers report that they found no measurable increase in effectiveness in any of the volunteers who were given the vaccine. Some of the volunteers who had received the placebo had lower than normal viral loads for a short time. This showed that if the study had not been conducted with placebos, the results would have showed that the vaccine had worked to a limited extent.
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