David Barton: There Will Never Be An HIV Vaccine Because God Hates Homosexuals

God also hates African babies. Obviously.

David Barton: The Bible Says There Will Never Be A Vaccine For HIV Because God Sent AIDS To Kill Homosexuals

New Weakness Found In HIV

Scientists in La Jolla, California have found a fifth area of vulnerability in HIV that may advance the search for a vaccine.

The research was described in two papers published Thursday in the journal Immunity. It’s the latest product of a major effort by the National Institutes of Health and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which funds work at TSRI. A new class of antibodies that neutralize a broad range of HIV strains provided a critical tool. The surface protein bearing the vulnerable site is typically unstable and difficult to study. Unlike previously discovered "broadly neutralizing" antibodies, these actually stabilize the protein in its fully assembled, infectious state. This makes it much easier to study the HIV surface protein. Moreover, other such vulnerable sites are likely to exist, the researchers said, and knowledge of what to look for should help. The site is the first discovered since 2009, said Andrew Ward, one of the TSRI researchers. “They’re elegant studies, as good as it gets,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Infection Control Today has more:

The discovery is part of a large, IAVI- and NIH-sponsored effort to develop an effective vaccine against HIV. Such a vaccine would work by eliciting a strong and long-lasting immune response against vulnerable conserved sites on the virus—sites that don’t vary much from strain to strain, and that, when grabbed by an antibody, leave the virus unable to infect cells. HIV generally conceals these vulnerable conserved sites under a dense layer of difficult-to-grasp sugars and fast-mutating parts of the virus surface. Much of the antibody response to infection is directed against the fast-mutating parts and thus is only transiently effective. Prior to the new findings, scientists had been able to identify only a few different sets of “broadly neutralizing” antibodies, capable of reaching four conserved vulnerable sites on the virus. All these sites are on HIV’s only exposed surface antigen, the flower-like envelope (Env) protein (gp140) that sprouts from the viral membrane and is designed to grab and penetrate host cells.

(Tipped by JMG reader Eric)

Simian Vaccine Shows Promise For HIV

The Independent reports:

A vaccine designed to tackle SIV, the monkey equivalent of HIV, may have successfully cleared the virus from infected animals, paving the way for research into a HIV vaccine for humans. It was previously thought that both the human and simian immunodeficiency viruses could be managed with antiretroviral therapies, but not eradicated. However, a study published in the science journal Nature showed that of 16 monkeys exposed to the virus who were injected with a vaccine, nine appeared to be able to clear their body of the disease. US researchers from the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute at Oregon Health and Science University are now hoping to use a similar approach to test for a vaccine equivalent in humans. The team examined a strain of the virus called SIVmac239, which is up to 100 times more deadly than HIV.

Researchers are now looking into why the vaccine only worked for some of the monkeys.

Canadian HIV Vaccine Advances

From Ontario's Western University:

Sumagen Canada Inc and Western University announced today that the Phase I Clinical Trial (SAV CT 01) of the first and only preventative HIV vaccine based on a genetically modified killed whole virus (SAV001-H) has been successfully completed with no adverse effects in all patients. Antibody production was also boosted after vaccination.  Developed by Dr. Chil-Yong Kang and his team at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, with the support of Sumagen Canada, the vaccine (SAV001-H) holds tremendous promise for success in the final phases of clinical testing now that the first hurdle has been accomplished. It is the only HIV vaccine developed in Canada currently in clinical trial, and one of only a few in the world. This vaccine is the first genetically modified killed whole virus vaccine (SAV001-H) in human clinical trial to evaluate its safety, tolerability and immune responses. The human clinical trial was initiated in March 2012 and completed in August 2013. This trial was a randomized, observer-blinded, placebo-controlled study of killed whole HIV-1 vaccine (SAV001-H) following intramuscular (IM) administration. HIV-infected, asymptomatic men and women, 18 to 50 years of age, have been enrolled in this study and randomized into two treatment groups to administer killed whole HIV-1 vaccine (SAV001-H) or placebo.

(Tipped by JMG reader Robert)

Temporary HIV Vaccine Shows Promise

A therapeutic HIV vaccine that temporarily "puts the brakes" on the growth of the virus has shown promise in a small study conducted by researchers in Spain.

The vaccine, based on immune cells exposed to HIV that had been inactivated with heat, was tested on a group of 36 people carrying the virus and the results were the best yet recorded for such a treatment, the team said. "What we did was give instructions to the immune system so it could learn to destroy the virus, which it does not do naturally," said Felipe Garcia, one of the scientists in the team at Barcelona University's Hospital Clinic.

The therapeutic vaccine, a shot that treats an existing disease rather than preventing it, was safe and led to a dramatic drop in the amount of HIV virus detected in some patients, said the study, published Wednesday in Science Translation Medicine. After 12 weeks of the trial, the HIV viral load dropped by more than 90 percent among 12 of the 22 patients who received the vaccine. Only one among the 11 patients who received a control injection without the vaccine experienced a similar result.

After 24 weeks, the effectiveness had begun to decline, however, with seven of the 20 remaining patients receiving the vaccine enjoying a similar 90-percent slump in viral load. No-one in the control group of 10 patients experienced such a decline in the virus.

FDA Approves HIV Vaccine Study

Promising news from the University of Western Ontario.

Kang said the vaccine, called SAV001, is the first preventative HIV vaccine approved for clinical trials to use a killed whole HIV-1 virus to activate the immune response in humans. The strategy has been used before to develop successful vaccines for influenza, polio, rabies and hepatitis A. Kang said these past successes for other viral diseases provide hope the Canadian-developed vaccine will work against HIV. The human immunodeficiency virus used in the vaccine has been genetically altered to render it non-pathogenic, or unable to cause disease. Kang and his research team then further inactivated the virus using chemicals and radiation. In the past, people did not use this strategy (using a killed whole HIV virus) because people did not know how to make a safer virus and people did not know how to make large quantities of it,” Kang said. “Now we have solved those problems by the genetic engineering of the virus.”

Possible HIV Vaccine Advance

HIV researchers at Cal Tech and UCLA report the ability to "short circuit" the immune system to block the virus.

They created a disarmed adenovirus that contained the genes needed to produce a broadly effective antibody from humans, optimizing the DNA to make sure that the antibody was made in muscle cells, and then secreted into their environment. The modified virus was then injected into mice that had had their immune systems humanized (the stem cells in their bone marrow were killed off and then repopulated with human cells). The mice were then exposed to levels of HIV many times higher than are normally present during initial infections. Not all antibodies effectively blocked new infections, but at least one did so consistently. The resistance to new HIV infections persisted for the life of the experiments.

As always with these reports, it must be noted that it may be many years, if ever, that such a tactic is tested in humans. (Tipped by JMG reader Dave)

More Promising HIV Vaccine News

While many who work down in the trenches of HIV/AIDS activism have long given up any hope of an effective vaccine in our lifetimes, small glimmers of hope continue to occasionally peek through the clouds. From a small vaccine study in Spain, a result that may reduce HIV to a "minor chronic infection" such as herpes:

The trial demonstrated how the vaccine stimulates the production of lymphocytes B, which produces HIV attacking antibodies that block the virus from infecting healthy cells. Blood tests during the 48th week revealed that 72.7% of the treated volunteers had developed these HIV fighting antibodies. However generating a long lasting response against future attacks truly renders the vaccine effective. This is achieved when the body maintains a basic memory level of T lymphocytes, which are generated after the first attack and can circulate the body for years. The T lymphocytes are responsible for stimulating the attacked cell's immune response, which can then identify and destroy the HIV virus. Blood tests during the 48th week revealed that the 85% of the patients maintained the memory T lymphocytes immune response. "MVA-B immune profile meets, initially, the requirements for a promising HIV vaccine," says Esteban. Although it does not remove the virus from the body, the immune response induced by the vaccine could keep the virus under control by destroying the infected cell.

A new phase of trials with infected volunteers is set to commence. While this and other vaccine studies have showed some promise, most have failed. And none have been shown to work in all subjects.

HIV Vaccine Advance?

More potential good news in the battle against HIV.

Scientists have found a way to prevent HIV from damaging the immune system and say their discovery may offer a new approach to developing a vaccine against AIDS. Researchers from the United States and Europe working in laboratories on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) found it is unable to damage the immune system if cholesterol is removed from the virus's membrane. "It's like an army that has lost its weapons but still has flags, so another army can recognize it and attack it," said Adriano Boasso of Imperial College London, who led the study. The team now plans to investigate how to use this way of inactivating the virus and possibly develop it into a vaccine.

Vaccine Breakthrough Finds Antibody That Kills 91% Of HIV Strains

Another advance in the search for an HIV vaccine:

In a significant step toward an AIDS vaccine, U.S. government scientists have discovered three powerful antibodies, the strongest of which neutralizes 91% of HIV strains, more than any AIDS antibody yet discovered. Looking closely at the strongest antibody, they have detailed exactly what part of the virus it targets and how it attacks that site. The antibodies were discovered in the cells of a 60-year-old African-American gay man, known in the scientific literature as Donor 45, whose body made the antibodies naturally. Researchers screened 25 million of his cells to find 12 that produced the antibodies. Now the trick will be for scientists to develop a vaccine or other methods to make anyone's body produce them. That effort "will require work," said Gary Nabel, director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was a leader of the research. "We're going to be at this for a while" before any benefit is seen in the clinic, he said.

There's been lots of encouraging HIV-related news this year, but of course many of these advances are years away from any human trials.

97 Meds In HIV/AIDS Pipeline

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association writes us today in advance of World AIDS Day (December 1st) to let us know about the 97 HIV/AIDS medications currently in the research pipeline.

Conservatively, an effective HIV vaccine could prevent almost 30 million of the 150 million new infections projected in the coming decades. A highly effective vaccine could even prevent more than 70 million infections in 15 years. Currently, 23 vaccines are in development. In addition to the vaccines now in development, there are 54 antivirals, four cancer treatments, six immunomodulators, three gene therapies, and eight other medicines now in human clinical trials or before the Food and Drug Administration awaiting approval.

A complete list of the 97 medications and their status in the FDA approval process is available here. (PDF) Since 1983, 31 medications have been approved for treating HIV/AIDS. The PRMA invites you to check out their Prescription Assistance Program if you are uninsured or unable to fully afford your medications.

RELATED: It's rather interesting for me to get a direct message from the PRMA, as it was outside their Washington DC headquarters where I came the closest I've ever come to being arrested, during a 1993 ACT-UP "die in" protesting the cost of HIV meds.

Stars Come Out For HIV Vaccine

The Covalent Immunology Foundation, who last week held a Manhattan event to promote their vaccine research, has rounded up some bold-face names to support their EndHIV.com site, which asks viewers for a $5 to help their cause.

Actors, performers, comedians, HIV activists, and scientists come together to show support for Covalent Immunology, and Dr. Sudhir Paul. The Cast includes Lady Bunny, Justin Bond, Ben Andrews, Angie Pontani, Kristen Renton, Thea Gill, Wilson Cruz, The Pixie Harlots, and Hydeia Broadbent

Father Tony attended Covalent's vaccine event, his report is here.