 |
|
|
Online Coverage New Oral DNA Vaccine Funded for Trials |
|
By John S. James AIDS Treatment News, Publisher Durban World Conference, July 9-14: Online Coverage
The XIII International AIDS Conference--the world meeting
on AIDS which is held every two years--will meet in Durban,
South Africa July 9-14. AIDS TREATMENT NEWS will be there
but we will not publish live reports. Our next issue, #346,
will be mailed before the conference but may not be
received until the meeting is underway; therefore we are
publishing pre-Durban news in this issue. We will begin our
coverage of the International AIDS Conference in #347.
Several Web sites (including hiv.medscape.com, hivinsite.ucsf.edu, www.HIVandHepatitis.com, www.thebody.com, and www.natap.org) will publish reports during the conference. And hivinsite.ucsf.edu will list other sites with live coverage, during or shortly after the Durban meeting; to reach this listing, click 'Medical Information', then click 'Conference Summaries'. The Medscape site this year will include reports by six South African physicians, who will cover issues including antiretroviral therapy, management of opportunistic infections, and preventing mother-to-infant transmission in resource-poor settings. AEGIS, www.aegis.org, will as always carry wire- service and other AIDS news reports. Information specific to women can be found at the organizing site of the Women's Satellite meeting, www.womenatdurban.org And speeches of South African President Thabo Mbeki and Deputy President Jacob Zuma, as well as press releases from their office, are always available at www.gov.za/president/index.html Incidentally, an excellent 4-part background series on Mbeki, published in a major South African newspaper just over a year ago, is available at: www.suntimes.co.za/1999/05/16/insight/in01.htm New Oral DNA Vaccine Funded for Trials
(1) There are many advantages to vaccines which work by delivering DNA which instructs cells to produce the specific proteins against which immunity is needed. But ordinarily DNA could not be taken orally because it would not reach the places it needs to go. The new technology uses a salmonella bacterium which has been genetically modified so that it does not cause disease--and also genetically modified so that it includes selected parts of HIV. The salmonella bacterium "knows its way around the gut," and delivers the selected DNA directly to dendritic cells in the intestinal mucosa, which may be particularly effective for providing "mucosal immunity" to prevent HIV infection. This is important for blocking sexual transmission of the virus. (2) This bacterium has plenty of room to carry added DNA, allowing great flexibility for modifications. If the first vaccine does not work, different versions can easily be made by trying other parts of the virus. And this vaccine can be customized for the different viral strains which cause epidemics in different parts of the world. (3) The six standard children's vaccines cost less than $1 to produce (for all six), but $15 or more per person to deliver in developing countries, because of the need for sterile injection, specially trained health workers, etc. An oral medication should be much less expensive to deliver. This vaccine is well along in its development, but clinical trials are still more than a year away. The first trials will take place in Baltimore and in Uganda, where the Ministry of Health is an active participant in this program. One trial will compare this vaccine head to head against an injected formulation which uses the same active ingredients but a very different delivery system--a vaccine also being funded by IAVI. "The driving force for this decade-long effort [to create the new vaccine] has been the development of a simple delivery system for an HIV vaccine that can be administered without needles and that can be afforded by developing nations. Salmonella-DNA has these attributes built in from the start. We are extremely excited now to be able to evaluate this strategy in human volunteers," said Dr. George Lewis, Director of the IHV Division of Vaccine Research. For more information on the Institute of Human Virology, see www.ihv.org ; for information on IAVI, see www.iavi.org _ AIDS Treatment News Published twice monthly Subscription and Editorial Office: P.O. Box 411256 San Francisco, CA 94141 800/TREAT-1-2 toll-free U.S. and Canada 415/255-0588 regular office number Fax: 415/255-4659 E-mail: aidsnews@aidsnews.org
Editor and Publisher: John S. James Associate Editor: Tadd T. Tobias Reader Services: Tom Fontaine and Denny Smith Operations Manager: Danalan Richard Copeland Statement of Purpose: AIDS Treatment News reports on experimental and standard treatments, especially those available now. We interview physicians, scientists, other health professionals, and persons with AIDS or HIV; we also collect information from meetings and conferences, medical journals, and computer databases. Long-term survivors have usually tried many different treatments, and found combinations which work for them. AIDS Treatment News does not recommend particular therapies, but seeks to increase the options available. Subscription Information: Call 800/TREAT-1-2 Businesses, Institutions, Professionals: $270/year. Includes early delivery of an extra copy by email. Nonprofit organizations: $135/year. Includes early delivery of an extra copy by email. Individuals: $120/year, or $70 for six months. Special discount for persons with financial difficulties: $54/year, or $30 for six months. If you cannot afford a subscription, please write or call. Outside North, Central, or South America, add air mail postage: $20/year, $10 for six months. Back issues available. Fax subscriptions, bulk rates, and multiple subscriptions are available; contact our office for details. Please send U.S. funds: personal check or bank draft, international postal money order, or travelers checks. ISSN # 1052-4207 Copyright 2000 by John S. James. |
© 1997-2000 BEI