Wrong Way: HIV vaccine hinders immunity in mice
By Brian Vastag
Two months after investigators halted a once-promising HIV vaccine trial, a horde of mice is delivering more bad news. The viral packaging used in another HIV vaccine has hurt, not helped, the animals’ immune systems.
The finding prompted study leader Hildegund C.J. Ertl of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia to call for a pause in human tests of the vaccine that delivers snippets of HIV to people via a genetically altered adeno-associated virus (AAV). This viral package is designed to train the immune system to recognize and attack HIV. But vaccines employing AAV “may potentially cause harm,” Ertl says. “Without additional preclinical studies, they should not be used in humans.”