Clinical Trials of India-Specific Anti-AIDS Vaccine

[Guest guest]

dear sir

this is a very good news and i think subject has to

treated with lot more care and precision may in this

direction one has to try and get the whole lot of

voluntary organisation to do the anti aids vaccine in

terms of the spectrum reachability and more than all

lets not forget the role played by them in the

eradication of the polio

hope MR prasad rao will look into this matter get a

novel and immediate presentation ofthe subject to the

experts to reachability of the vaccine in the india

which is having the difficulty of most wide reaching

and hic ups for the programme to be successful

Thank you

Srinivasa Vinjamuri

E-mail: vimshira@...>

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[Guest guest]

This is in referecne to the message to " Clinical Trials of India-Specific

Anti-AIDS Vaccine to Start in >2003 " Agence France Presse (04.16.02 "

But WHICH vaccine? Are these full-length transcripts? I.e., where the full

nef genome is present and the entire nef protein is expressed? That is what

I understood this vaccine to be. And not just nef.

This concerns me. There may be risks as these proteins are a part of the

pathophysiology of HIV disease. Nef, for example, reduces the expression of

MHC-I and CD4 receptors in infected cells in which it is expressed. A more

sensible route is embodied in other vaccines where only a small piece of

the protein is expressed.

This leaves the questions that we hope will be answered positively:

1) is the vector used adequate to provide significant expression of the

antigens to elicit signicant immune responses that are protective (or

therapeutic);

2) can endogenous or infecting HIV evade these responses?

3) will the vaccine induce autoimmune responses?

4) will the vector (whether DNA or viral-vector) get to all tissues, esp.

MALT/GALT?

It is critical to understand exactly what the vaccine is to assure the best

is being done to maxmize efficacy and minimize risks. Full-length

transcripts seem unduly risky to me, although perhaps there are animal data

to assuage those concerns?

Does anyone have more information on this?

I confess a slight cynicism on the one hand due to the horribly prolonged

investigation of env-based recombinant vaccines that were clearly a flop

even in the early 90s--yet some still persist. Being a gemini, though, I

can see some hope and I believe that some of the approaches being tried by

IAVI and Merck represent a potentially significant advance in vaccine

design. (Bernard Herschel mentioned in a conversation that he feared the

Merck vaccine, tho it looks good, doesn't stimulate a strong enough

response in humans, as compared to the macaque model, to actually confer

protection).

M.

E-mail: <gmc0@...>

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