Spanish research team testing HIV 'Super Vaccine'

 

A Spanish research team are in the process of testing a vaccine that, if successful, will be the most powerful HIV drug available.

The research began over 1 year ago on animals and has now progressed to human testing, with 30 healthy subjects being selected at random for a pool of 370 volunteers for the next stage of the research.

6 people received a placebo and 24 received the actual vaccine, researchers were then able to ascertain that the vaccinated group only received "limited" and "slight" after effects, which means that the vaccine is safe and likely to be approved for human use.

The team also found that 95% of those vaccinated built up immunity, far better than previous HIV vaccines which only showed bodily defences building up in around 25% of patients.

The new vaccine was also able to stimulate the production of cells and antibodies whereas previous drugs were only able to stimulate on or the other.

The next stage that the researchers will have to contend with, is to move on from testing on healthy subjects and perform clinical trials on volunteers infected with HIV to see if the vaccine can be successfully used to treat HIV.