Shalini Gupta – New Delhi
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| Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare |
Research towards a preventive HIV vaccine seems to be heating up and scientific collaboration cutting across borders seems to be the mantra. The immediacy is much more given that India is the third largest country with an HIV infected population after South Africa and Nigeria. And so, soon after the 19th World AIDS Congress came to a close in Washington DC last month, a two-day international symposium, titled ‘Accelerating India’s Response to Research for a Preventive HIV Vaccine’, was recently held in Delhi at the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) Convention Centre.
Devoted exclusively to HIV vaccine design and development, the event was organised by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), Government of India (GoI); in partnership with the Department of AIDS Control (DAC) and the Department of Health Research (DHR), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India; the Forum of Parliamentarians on HIV/AIDS (FPA); the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI); the Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).
Inaugurating the event, former President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam emphasised the need to integrate all R&D activities on HIV research with a mandate to develop and commercialise an effective vaccine for HIV. Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad lauded the efforts of the National AIDS Control Programme, currently in its fourth phase, that helped reduce the number of HIV infected cases, a whopping 56 per cent from 2.7 lakh in 2000 to 1.2.lakh in 2009. However, he stressed the need for a preventive vaccine.
“Only a vaccine can have a high impact on public health which is further elucidated by the efficacy that vaccines for small pox and measles have shown in the past. India hasn’t reported a single case of polio since 2011 and hence has been removed from the list of countries with endemic polio cases. We can only hope that a cure for HIV would help us achieve a similar status in the future,” he said.
| A vaccine that kills HIV like Ram killed Ravana |
| Given the tricky nature of the HIV virus, Kalam compared it to Ravana, a demon with 10 heads who comes up with another head as soon as one is mutilated and hence is indestructible. Just like when Ram targets Ravan’s navel, he drops dead,a precise strategy needs to be applied to, when designing a vaccine for HIV, to nip it in the bud, he said. |
It is to be noted that various preventive methods have been used to treat HIV patients such as microbicides, voluntary male circumcision, and anti-retroviral therapy (ART) even as newer ones are being worked out. These have helped control HIV infections from a range of 90 per cent to as high as 96 per cent. Still there are more than 2.5 million new infections reported every year.
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| Speakers during the inauguration of the event |
Apart from an august gathering of scientists, researchers, and academia, the event saw a host of parliamentarians supporting the cause. Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Science and Technology, Earth Sciences and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises praised the efforts of the forum of parliamentarians under the leadership of Oscar Fernandes for providing impetus to scientific endeavour in the development of technology towards an efficient public health programme.
India has conducted phase I trials of two HIV vaccines, but they had to be abandoned later. While one showed no appreciable immunogenicity, the other a combination vaccine in which DNA-based vaccine ADVAX was used as prime and Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) as boost, had issues related to MVA stability, informed RS Paranjpe, Director, National Aids Research Institute (NARI) Pune.
India, though has played a leadership role in providing close to 80 per cent of the ARV drugs used to treat HIV patients across the world. Giving a global perspective on HIV vaccine research, Margaret Mcglynn, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) President and CEO said, “RV 144, underwent phase II clinical trials in Thailand, but it’s efficacy was too modest to bring it to the market. Another candidate in phase I trials showed greater efficacy but did not show neutralising antibodies.”
“Around 20 broadly neutralising antibodies have now been identified and understanding their structure will help scientists design immunogens which when injected into the body can produce the right antibodies,” she added.
Collaboration is the way to go for 21st century science in the light of global health challenges the world faces today, said, Ashwani Kumar, Union Minister of State for Planning, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences. Taking a cue from the same, an HIV Vaccine Translational Research Laboratory is soon to come up in Delhi, a new research facility in India that aims to design vaccines that elicit an immune response capable of neutralising a broad spectrum of HIV variants. The laboratory is a joint venture of the Government of India’s THSTI, an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, and IAVI.
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