New vaccine helps five people fight HIV without daily drugs

A new vaccine designed to fight HIV has helped five people live free of the virus, without having to take daily drugs, New Scientist reports.

The vaccine, which was being developed by Tomas Hanke at the University of Oxford, began testing three years ago in Spain in a trial of 24 people.

The participants were given two vaccines along with antiretroviral drugs (ART) before they were monitored to see whether the drugs induced a strong immune response.

This year, 15 of the participants received a booster dose of the vaccines, three doses of romidepsin (a cancer drug which could “flush” out HIV) and another booster.

They then stopped taking ART. Normally, if the drug is stopped, the HIV virus quickly returns.

For ten of the participants, the virus re-emerged and they began taking ART again. However, the five remaining participants had a strong enough immune system to suppress the virus without the need for other drugs.

One person of the study has remained off ART for seven months now and scientists are beginning to investigate why only a third of people react to the vaccine.

Beatriz Mothe of the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain states there’s a long way to go, “but we’re on the right path.”

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